WASHINGTON -- Three retired American generals told a Senate committee Thursday that they see problems with President Bush's new plan for Iraq, but a fourth general, who helped develop the plan, said it would be the key to an eventual U.S. exit.
The four testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as Congress examines Bush's plan to add about 17,500 troops to help quell sectarian violence in Baghdad and 4,000 more to fight Sunni Muslim terrorists and insurgents in Iraq's Anbar province.
"Too little, too late," retired Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Hoar said.
The generals' testimony echoed skepticism in Congress about whether Iraq's Shiite Muslim prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, will stop Shiite militias from killing Sunni Iraqis and find a way to share political power and oil revenues equitably.
Hoar said that more troops shouldn't be considered unless al-Maliki first disarms the militias and purges their supporters from the police. "If he's not committed to make hard choices early on, there's no chance in pulling this thing off," Hoar said.
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Hoar said Iraq needed a political -- not military -- solution, backed by diplomacy with countries in the region, including Iran and Syria. Bush has ruled out direct talks with Iran and Syria.
Retired Gen. Jack Keane, who devised the buildup plan and urged Bush to use it, told the senators that al-Maliki's goals aren't clear but that supporting him is still the best way to proceed. Keane's plan calls for the United States to target Sunni insurgents so that Shiites can pull back.
Keane said the U.S. troop increase would buy time to develop Iraqi forces. "They are our exit strategy," he said.
But retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom said that neither Shiites nor Sunnis appeared to be committed to national reconciliation.
Some senators pounced on Keane's uncertainty about al-Maliki.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said the United States was "rolling the dice" and risking American lives and money for a plan whose outcome was too unclear.
In other developments Thursday:
* Mahdi Army fighters said they were under siege in their Sadr City stronghold as U.S. and Iraqi troops killed or seized key commanders in pinpoint nighttime raids. Two commanders of the Shiite militia said al-Maliki has stopped protecting the group under pressure from Washington and threats from Sunni Muslim Arab governments.
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* Police reported 59 people were killed or found dead, with the single largest toll from a triple car bombing that killed 10 in a wholesale vegetable market in a south Baghdad Shiite neighborhood. Twenty-seven bodies were found dumped in Baghdad, 19 on the largely Sunni west side of the Tigris, eight on the mainly Shiite east bank.
* An Iranian offer to help the United States stabilize Iraq and end its military support for Hezbollah and Hamas was rejected by Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003, a former top State Department official told the British Broadcasting Corp.
* A Marine corporal pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering an unarmed Iraqi civilian last year, and said his sergeant made sure the victim was dead by firing a burst of gunfire into the man's head.
* The second of five 101st Airborne Division soldiers accused of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl along with executing three of her family members last year in Iraq has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, his attorney said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
