World

Rethinking Iraq

May 9, 2005 / 6:37 AM EDT / CBS/AP

The upsurge in violence in Iraq is raising questions on Capitol Hill, not all of them from Democrats.

Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a broadcast interview Sunday that if Iraqis fail to write a constitution, elect a new government and develop reliable security forces by early next year, Washington will have to rethink its commitment there.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed.

"We can buy some time to help assist framing that free government and independent operation of democracy and opportunities, but we can't go beyond that," Hagel said, noting, "You get to a point of diminishing returns."

Iraq's future is on the line, and every step forward in Baghdad seems to be met by two steps backward, reports CBS News Correspondent Dan Raviv. The first post-Saddam cabinet has been formed, but in the past ten days insurgents killed more than 300 people.

In other developments:

The fighting in Iraq took the lives of seven American troops this weekend. Three Marines and a sailor died in a fight with insurgents at a hospital in western Iraq. One soldier was killed near Samarra. And two soldiers died in an explosion near Khaldiyah.

In Baghdad, the parliament approved six Cabinet nominees, four of them members of the Sunni Arab minority. But one Sunni nominee turned the job down, complaining of tokenism.

Iraq claimed to have captured Amar al-Zubayadi, described as a key aide to terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Levin said only a quarter of the 168,000 Iraqi forces being trained and equipped by the U.S.-led coalition "are able and willing to take on the insurgents."

"You can't sustain these policies indefinitely, whether it's the United States or any other country," said Hagel. "It'll be the people of Iraq who will ultimately determine the outcome of that country."