No time for rest, stay the course.

1. Bid to give U.S. troops more rest time fails

A Senate measure to give active-duty service members the same amount of time at home as they have served at war before they're redeployed fell short of approval.

WASHINGTON --
Senate Republicans on Wednesday defeated an amendment offered by two Vietnam combat veterans, Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., that would have increased the time troops have at home before they return to war in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Fifty-six senators -- including seven Republicans -- voted in favor, but the measure fell short of the 60-vote super-majority Republicans had demanded, exploiting Senate rules.

The measure would have required that active-duty service members have the same amount of time at home as they have served at war before they're sent to Iraq or Afghanistan again. Military reserves and National Guard members would have had three years between deployments.

[...]

The vote on lengthening ''dwell time'' between deployments, the first on amendments to a fiscal 2008 defense-policy bill, indicated that Democrats are likely to fall short on other bills to change war policy this month, but the gap is narrowing as more Republican senators and more Americans oppose President Bush's Iraq strategy.

A new Gallup poll released Wednesday found that 71 percent of Americans favor withdrawing most U.S. troops by April 2008, and 62 percent say it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq. Gallup said that was a new high in opposition to the war.

Democrats are pushing ahead with votes for withdrawal and changing the focus of the mission in Iraq to counterterrorism and training instead of stopping sectarian violence in Baghdad.