WASHINGTON — The Hawai'i congressional delegation, frustrated with Republicans for blocking legislation to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, plans to push on with the effort next year despite repeated failures.

Rep. Neil Abercrombie said it's only a matter of time and American casualties before the public gets fed up enough and forces politicians to bring the troops home.

"The pressure, as we move toward the election next year, will become enormous, even in the jerry-rigged Republican districts," said Abercrombie, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Abercrombie, Sens. Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel Akaka, and Rep. Mazie Hirono, all Democrats, favor troop withdrawals from Iraq. But they and other Democrats have not been able to budge President Bush or the once-shaky Republicans on the issue.

Democrats, the majority party in Congress, have forced some 40 votes on measures limiting Bush's war-fighting power in Iraq, but the minority Republicans have so frustrated the effort that only one measure passed both the House and Senate. That one was promptly vetoed.

"They (Republicans) want to stay with the president on ideological grounds because they hate to admit that somebody else might have been right about the failure of these policies," Abercrombie said.

Hirono said the failure of the votes shouldn't stop Democrats from continuing to push for troop withdrawals.

"The president ... has stubbornly refused to bring the troops home safely," she said. "He has made it plain that funding the Iraq war is his highest priority, vetoing any other legislation that he views as obstacles to war funding."

Some critics of Bush's ongoing troop surge concede it may be working — at least in the short term. American monthly combat deaths have dropped from the year's high of 120 in May to 27 in November. Iraqi civilian deaths are down as well.

"My concern is that the overall drop in violence is only a lull, and it may not be permanent," said Inouye, who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee. "Sectarian violence among Iraqis has continued unabated."

In addition, the Iraq police force, which is charged with enforcing the nation's civil law, also has shown weaknesses, Inouye said.

Leading Democrats argue the surge hasn't worked because Iraqis have not taken advantage of the drop in violence to advance politically, which the surge was intended to encourage.

"Iraqi leaders have not been willing or able to compromise or take necessary actions to make political progress," Hirono said. "In my view, the surge has failed and the president continues on his course in Iraq with no end in sight."

Akaka said the surge has not provided enough stability to make political compromise possible. "I do not believe that the Iraqi government has made any real or significant progress," said Akaka, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Abercrombie said the surge could not succeed because it has nothing to do with the strategic goals of moving the country toward political stability.

Arguments over whether the surge has succeeded could become pointless if Iraq experiences another spike in violence. That could increase congressional support for passing troop withdrawal legislation.

Hirono said if that occurred, she hoped House and Senate members would be influenced enough to back troop withdrawal.

"However, President Bush and his Republican allies ... have refused to abandon failed policies in Iraq, despite the high level of casualties and extreme violence previously."

Akaka said action needs to be taken on an exit strategy as soon as possible.

"One of the key elements of stabilizing the ongoing chaos is for the Iraqi government to begin to take more responsibility for ensuring their nation's own security," he said. "That can only be accomplished by withdrawing U.S. troops so that the Iraqi security forces can assume the primary combat role in protecting and defending their nation."

Bush has said that if the surge continues to keep violence down, he wants to withdraw 30,000 of the roughly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by summer.

But another major spike in violence could scuttle that plan.

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.

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