Pat Dollard

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Political:

Twelve members of the Senate Armed Services Committee — 11 Republicans and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut — have asked the committee’s chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), to hold hearings on President Barack Obama’s announcement that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of this year.

In a letter released Thursday, the senators said the administration has sent conflicting signals on whether any troops would remain in Iraq. While Obama’s announcement “apparently ends negotiations between the United States and the Government of Iraq on a long-term training and stability force of sufficient size to protect both U.S. and Iraqi enduring national security interests,” the letter noted that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has also said the U.S. will continue talks with the Iraqis.

“Given the president’s announcement that all U.S. military forces will be withdrawn by the end of the year, our committee should take the lead on establishing the public record on the administration’s plan and ensuring Congress’s rigorous oversight of this consequential decision,” the senators wrote.

The only GOP senator on the committee who did not sign the letter was Susan Collins of Maine.

Levin’s office declined comment on the request.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other GOP senators, along with Lieberman, already were concerned that the number of troops likely to remain under a new deal was too low to defend U.S. interests in Iraq. McCain called the withdrawal “a strategic victory for our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime, which has worked relentlessly to ensure a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.”

The White House portrayed the move as the fulfillment of Obama’s campaign promise to end the Iraq War.