As the US Congress prepares to vote on resolutions opposing additional American troops in Iraq, senior Democrats have warned President George W Bush that it is only the first of a series of steps that are being contemplated if he fails to heed the signals coming out of Capitol Hill.
The Non-Binding Resolution is likely to be debated and voted upon soon but Bush and his deputy Dick Cheney have said they will not budge from sending thousands more troops to Iraq no matter how much Congress opposes it.
The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph Biden, who is also seeking the Democratic Party nomination for the Presidential election of 2008 has rejected the argument put forth by the Cheney that such political resolutions only embolden terrorists like Osama bin Laden.
"It's about time we stopped listening to that ideological rhetoric and that "Bin Laden" and the rest. Bin Laden isn't the issue here. Bin Laden will become the issue," Biden said.
"The issue is there's a civil war...That's what we have. That's what the president has to deal with. And he's doing it the exact wrong way. And he's not listening to his military... To his old secretaries of state... To his old friends. He's not listening to anybody but Cheney, and Cheney is dead-wrong," he added.