(January 12, 2007)--Top Pentagon officials were on Capitol Hill on Friday to sell skeptical lawmakers that the president's new strategy for Iraq is the best chance to win the war there.

The plan, announced on Wednesday, calls for an increase of 21,000 US troops and puts pressure on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to take more steps to secure
the country.

The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee called the planned buildup of additional US forces there misguided.

"Increasing the number of U.S. forces in Iraq is flawed strategy because it is based on a false premise that there is a military solution to the violence and instability in Iraq when what is needed is a political solution among the Iraqi leaders and factions," Senator Carl Levin said.

Senator John McCain, the panel's top Republican, has long called for an increase in US troops there and defended the president's plan.

"We should make no mistake - the potentially catastrophic consequences of failure demand that we do all we can to prevail in Iraq.

A substantial and sustained increase in US forces in Baghdad and Anbar province is necessary to bring down the toxic levels of violence there," he said.

Gates says the plan can work as long as Maliki and his government follow through on their commitments.

"Mistakes certainly have been made by the United States in Iraq, but however we got to this moment, the stakes now are incalculable. Your senior professional military officers in Iraq and at Washington believe in the efficacy of the strategy outlined by the president. They believe it is a sound plan that can work if the Iraqi government follows through," Gates told the committee.

Senate Democrats hope to pass a nonbinding resolution opposing the president's call for a troop increase.

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