Rice: 'Imperative Not to Fail in Iraq'

"WASHINGTON -- President Bush's decision to deploy 21,500 additional troops to Iraq drew fierce opposition Thursday from congressional Democrats, but the Senate's top Republican threatened a filibuster to block any legislation expressing disapproval of the plan.

'Obviously, it will . . . require 60 votes,' said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as senior administration officials made the case for Bush's new policy in Congress, at news briefings and the morning television programs.

'This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq,' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." Read on.