"No blank cheque" for Bush's Iraq reinforcements
Nancy Pelosi is the new speaker in the US House of Representatives
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Sunday, 07, Jan 2007 08:24
US president George Bush will have to justify any increases to America's military commitment in Iraq, House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned.
Ms Pelosi said in an interview on the CBS news channel that there was "no blank cheque" for President Bush on Iraq, but did not confirm outright opposition to troop increase proposals.
Her comments follow a joint letter written yesterday by her and Senate leader Harry Reid which warned that the Democrats would not support reinforcements to the US military's deployment in Iraq.
"We will not abandon them," she said today.
"But if the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it and this is new for him because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank cheque with no oversight, no standards, no conditions."
Ms Pelosi assumed control of the lower house of Congress last week, following the "battering" President Bush and the Republicans endured in November's midterm elections.
Analysts attribute the Democrats' success in that poll to their opposition to the war in Iraq, making it likely that the party will not readily bow down from confrontation with the 43rd president.