Bush's Iraq plan for troops
Updated on 10 January 2007
George Bush will tell sceptical Americans he will send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq.
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It is part of a long-delayed new plan for the unpopular war, setting up a confrontation with Democrats.
The fresh infusion of troops will join about 130,000 already in Iraq. Senior administration officials said 17,500 would go to Baghdad and 4,000 to volatile Anbar province.
The first wave of troops are expected to arrive in five days, with others coming in additional waves.
Under the plan, the Iraqi government will deploy additional Iraqi troops to Baghdad with a first brigade deploying Febuary 1 and two more by Febuary 15.
Senior administration officials said the cost of the troop increase would be around $5.6bn.
An additional $1.2bn would finance a rebuilding and jobs programmes.
Democratic leaders of the US Congress say they plan to hold symbolic votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate on Bush's plan, which will force the president's Republicans to take a stand on the proposal in an attempt to isolate the president politically over his handling of the war.
They also could try to cut funding for the revised war strategy, but so far Democratic leaders have shied away from threats to do that, although some would like to do so.
