Reid says Bush told Iraq war lost cause

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday declared the United States had lost the war in Iraq, a conclusion he said he communicated to President Bush at a meeting Wednesday.

“This war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday,” Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, said at a Capitol Hill press conference with anti-war state legislators.

Mr. Reid said that both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates agree with his position, though neither has ever declared defeat.

“You have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows,” said Mr. Reid, who left the press conference without fielding follow-up questions.

The White House said no one recalled Mr. Reid saying “the war is lost” at the meeting with the president.

“It’s disturbing that some on Capitol Hill believe they know more than the commanders on the ground,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, adding that Mr. Reid’s assessment was in conflict with senior military advisers conducting the troop surge in Baghdad.

“If this is his true feeling, then it makes one wonder if he has the courage of his convictions and therefore will decide to defund the war,” Mrs. Perino said.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, this week said a little over half of the 25,000-troop surge he requested has arrived in Baghdad.

Democrats have previously deemed the Iraq mission “hopeless,” but few have gone as far as Mr. Reid did in denouncing the war effort.

Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat leading the anti-war push, was criticized severely last year for saying, “Now we’ve lost that war, and now it is time to redeploy” on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Still, Mr. Reid’s remark provoked an outcry from Republican leaders and bolstered Mr. Bush’s criticism that a pullout deadline in both versions of Congress’ $100 billion emergency war funding bill is a declaration of surrender and call for retreat.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner called on Mr. Reid to retract the statement.

“He is telling our enemies they have won,” said Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican. “While Mr. Reid may be willing to throw in the towel and declare this a lost cause, I am certain that American troops are not. … Mr. Reid’s comments are demoralizing to our troops, and just plain wrong.”

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, defended Mr. Reid against criticism that he was advocating surrender.

“Who are we surrendering to?” he said. “This is an unconventional war and it has to be dealt with in unconventional ways. … What is failure is this bankrupt policy, this ineffective no-win policy of the administration?”

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