Rice: Don’t tie our hands

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke out Sunday against efforts in Congress to limit the role of U.S. forces in Iraq, saying President Bush would not allow himself to be constrained by such a “micromanagement of military affairs.”

Asked whether Bush would abide by a binding resolution, now being drafted by Democratic leaders, that would include the start of troop withdrawal from Iraq, Rice told “Fox News Sunday” such a measure would hinder his efforts to support the “flexibility of our commanders to do what they think they need to do on the ground.”

“I can’t imagine a circumstance in which it’s a good thing that their flexibility is constrained by people sitting here in Washington, sitting in the Congress, trying to micromanage this war,” Rice said. “I just don’t think it’s a good thing.”

She said Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, backs the president’s plan to send in 21,500 more troops, primarily to deal with sectarian violence in Baghdad.

The legislation being drafted by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and other Democrats would limit the mission by modifying the 2002 resolution authorizing the use of U.S. military force in Iraq.

It would restrict the role of U.S. forces to pursuing Al Qaeda operatives and supporting and training Iraqi army soldiers. It could also set a March 2008 goal for withdrawing troops not involved in those activities.

It is unclear how much bipartisan support Levin and others have managed to gather in the Senate since failing in this month’s effort to pass a symbolic resolution opposing the troop buildup. A similar measure passed the House.

Rice, who also appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” said the restrictions were impractical given the nature of war and counterterrorism in Iraq.

“How do you possibly distinguish what is going on in Baghdad, for instance, from the fight with Al Qaeda?” she said. “Some of these car bombs may indeed be the work of an organization like Al Qaeda or Al Qaedaaffiliated allies.”

Levin, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” argued that Congress had “the responsibility -- not just the power, the responsibility -- to speak out and to change the course when you have a failing course, which is what we’re on.”

“This is not a surge so much as it is a plunge into Baghdad and into the middle of a civil war,” Levin said.

Asked if he was “tying the hands of the commander in chief,” he answered in part: “Of course we’re trying to tie the hands of the president and his policy. We’re trying to change the policy. And if someone wants to call that ‘tying the hands’ instead of ‘changing the policy’ -- yeah, the president needs a check and a balance.”

If Congress passes this binding resolution and Bush ignores it, Levin said, “we have a constitutional battle on our hands.”

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com