Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's plan to boost U.S. forces in Iraq drew fire from Republican senators and from Joseph Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who called it ``a tragic mistake.''

The plan is ``the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam,'' Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican of Nebraska, told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a hearing of the committee today.

The debate, which centered on whether the U.S. was plunging itself into a sectarian conflict, reflected the political difficulties Bush faces in selling the strategy to the Congress and the American public.

Rice defended Bush's decision to deploy 21,500 more soldiers and Marines to Baghdad and Anbar province to the west, while declining to specify what would happen if Iraqi troops fail to fight effectively alongside them. Bush said the additional troops would attempt to defeat insurgents and end violence among Sunnis and Shiites, a mission Biden said amounted to sending them into ``the midst of a civil war.''

``This is sectarian violence out of control, Iraqi on Iraqi,'' Hagel said. ``We will not win a war of attrition in the Middle East.''

Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, said he doubted that the Iraqi government had the resolve to make the Bush plan work. ``I just don't know if the Iraqis are done killing each other,'' he said.

Consequences Sought

Democrats and Republicans on the panel questioned the absence of benchmarks for Iraqi progress and why the U.S. had not outlined specific consequences if those markers go unmet.

``Or else what?'' Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, asked while probing Rice on the consequences of Iraqi inaction. Rice never answered directly, saying she didn't want to speculate on what the U.S. might do.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, appearing before a House committee later today, said the U.S. will ``revisit'' its plan if Iraqi leaders fail to meet their pledge to provide more troops and use them evenhandedly against all violent groups.

``Obviously, if the Iraqis fail to live up to their commitments,'' we will have to revisit our strategy,'' Gates told the House Armed Service Committee. He declined to say how long the administration would wait before reacting to a failure.

General Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs, appeared with Gates and reiterated that view. Both he and Gates noted that U.S. officials will soon have concrete indications about Iraqi intentions because the Iraqi government has promised to fully deploy one new brigade in Baghdad by Feb. 1 and two more by Feb. 15.

`On Borrowed Time'

Rice, asked by a senator if she had confidence in the current government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Rice said she did and added, ``I think he knows that his government is on borrowed time.''

Among Republicans who expressed pessimism on prospects of establishing a democracy in Iraq was Senator George Voinovich of Ohio. ``I've gone along with the president on this, and I bought into his dream and at this stage of the game I don't think it's going to happen,'' he said.

Top Bush aides are skeptical about Maliki's ability to carry out the new Baghdad security plan, an administration official told a group of reporters today on the condition he not be identified.

Showing Up

The idea of adding U.S. forces to put down unrest in Baghdad rests heavily on commitments from an Iraqi government that has often proven incapable of meeting previous pledges to crack down on violence and reach out to disaffected groups.

Last year, for example, the Iraqis agreed to contribute six battalions -- about 3,000 soldiers -- to a joint security operation in the capital called Operation Together Forward. Only two battalions showed up, according to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.

Biden said Bush had not heeded the results of the November mid-term congressional elections in deciding to escalate U.S. involvement in Iraq. Democrats won control of the Senate and House of Representatives in the elections, in which the Iraq war was a pivotal issue.

Congressional Democratic leaders in both chambers are drawing up resolutions designed to put the House and Senate on record in opposition to Bush's troop-surge proposal. The lawmakers are weighing other options that could tie further funding for the war to curtailed U.S. involvement.

American Role

Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he expected that ``almost all of the fighting in Baghdad'' described by Bush will fall to U.S. troops.

``This is presented as an Iraqi plan with Iraqi forces in the lead and the U.S. in support,'' Cordesman said. ``The reality is it's an American plan where the U.S. forces are in the lead, and it is unclear how much support U.S. forces are going to get.''

U.S. defense officials told reporters at the Pentagon today that a major part of the new strategy is for U.S. troops to target Sunni and Shiite militia leaders deemed most responsible for the sectarian violence.

The Maliki government promised to lift restrictions on targeting that have been in place for political reasons, and the U.S. now envisions pinpoint attacks such as that which killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June, two defense officials told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Iran, Syria

Biden said he thought Bush would need to seek additional congressional authorization before deciding to send U.S. troops in cross-border raids into Iran and Syria. In his televised speech yesterday, Bush described efforts by Iran and Syria to stoke violence in Iraq and said the U.S. would try to put a stop to it.

Beyond military operations, Bush and Rice pointed to Iraqi efforts to draft a law on sharing oil revenue as a way to overcome sectarian rifts.

Senator John Sununu, the New Hampshire Republican, assailed the administration for not knowing what was going on with the oil legislation. ``It's the most remarkable law that nobody has ever seen,'' Sununu said.

He complained that senior U.S. officials in a secret briefing couldn't give details on the revenue distribution methodology, which he said was crucial for assuring Sunnis they will partake in the country's wealth. Rice promised to give Sununu those details.

Earlier today, Rice said Tim Carney, a former ambassador to Sudan and Haiti, would oversee the non-military U.S. effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq. She also said more American officials would be shifted from the ``Green Zone'' enclave in Baghdad into the provinces.

``Success in Iraq relies on more than military efforts --it requires robust political and economic progress,'' Rice told a press conference.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janine Zacharia in Washington at jzacharia@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 11, 2007 17:47 EST