‘Anguished’ senators try to find way on Iraq

But supporters of the president said that while they understood that lawmakers would want to go on the record criticizing the war, passing a non-binding resolution was the lazy way out.

“One of my main disappointments with the resolution we debated in committee yesterday is it’s not a plan,” said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee who was among the few Republicans to endorse Bush’s plan outright.

“Everybody ... has a right to oppose a plan — to oppose the president’s plan — if that’s what they decide,” Vitter said in an interview with Jansing. “But I also think everybody has a responsibility to be for some plan going forward.”

For its part, the administration said it was not surprised by Wednesday’s vote but hoped Congress would give it more time to let Bush’s plan work.

White House press secretary Tony Snow pointed to remarks Thursday by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as proof that the troop commitment had emboldened the Iraqi government. Al-Maliki told Parliament that he was beginning a crackdown that would leave militants with “no safe haven — no school, no home, no [Sunni] mosque or Shiite mosque.”

“It is clear that a sign of American determination not only builds confidence but also activism on the part of the Iraqi government,” Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew to Missouri for a speech pushing his health insurance plan. “And we continue to believe that it’s important to make it clear to the Iraqis that our job is to help them build capability, and we’ll do it.”

Military families still on board — for now
As the debate was playing out, more members of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division have begun arriving in Iraq as part of the increased troop commitment.

In Fayetteville, N.C., where the 82nd is based, family members of the soldiers so far are standing behind the president’s plan, NBC’s Donna Gregory reported Thursday.

“When I look at my little boy, one thing I think is I don’t want his generation to still have to be going over to the Middle East and worrying about conflicts in the Middle East,” said Megan Schlanser, the wife of an 82nd Airborne soldier who has known colleagues who died in Iraq.

“I want this done with my generation,” she said. “I want my son to be able to feel that there is peace in the world and think, ‘Well, my dad helped with that.’”

A small but growing minority, however, is turning against the deployment, Gregory reported. About 100 families were expected to board a charter bus to Washington this weekend to join a protest by relatives of military personnel.

“The war has been just a mistake from the very beginning,” said Catherine McLin, the wife of a mental health officer who counsels soldiers traumatized in Iraq.

“So we were misled. It went on for years,” McLin said. “It’s not getting any better. It’s getting worse. More families are suffering. More families are getting destroyed. More people are dying. Let’s end it.”

MSNBC’s Chris Jansing and Mike Viqueira; NBC’s Donna Gregory in Fayetteville, N.C.; and NBC’s Chip Reid in Washington contributed to this report.

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