After breaking a parliamentary roadblock, the U.S. Senate began a debate on a resolution calling for the withdrawal of most Americans from Iraq in 2008.

“The way to succeed in Iraq is not to do more of the same,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada (pictured), the Democratic majority leader, according to the New York Times. “It is to change the mission and change the course.”

But Senator John McCain, a Republican of Arizona and supporter of increased troop numbrers in Iraq, said sponsors of the resolution “would not declare war, nor end it, as the Constitution provides, but micromanage it.”

The path to a full debate was cleared this morning, when the Senate voted 89-9 not to block it. But the vote is only to discuss the matter, and not by any means a support for the actual resolution.

Several Republicans, in fact, say they relish the debate, which they feel will highlight the flaws and dangers of what they asserted was Democratic “micromanagement” of the war.

But Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said a momentous choice is at hand.

“History will judge us. We can either continue down the perilous path, or embrace a new direction,” he said.

In the House, Democrats engaged in soul-searching discussions on Tuesday over their version of legislation aimed at winding down the Iraq war.

In a closed meeting among Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, and Representative Maxine Waters, a leader of the Out of Iraq Caucus, squared off over whether the legislation went far enough.

Still, the Democratic leadership said that its members are are confident and making progress in building a majority.

In the Senate, Democrats said Republicans are feeling the heat from the public after twice blocking consideration of a measure criticizing President George W. Bush’s proposal for a troop surge in Iraq.

Reid said the only Republican plan so far was “to commit more men and women in uniform to policing an open-ended civil war.”

Tuesday’s decision means that both the House and Senate are on course for debates and votes over the next week on legislation calling for removing American combat troops from Iraq over the next two years.

But many Senate roadblocks can still be raised, and even if both chambers proceed to a vote, the outcomes is far from certain.

Democrats hold 51 Senate seats when counting two independents. But they’ll start out with only 49, because of the illness of Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut siding with Bush on Iraq war policy. Several moderate Republicans have sided with the Democrats on past Iraq resolutions, but some do not approve of the current measure.

In the House, Democratic leaders are striving to build a majority for their measure, constructed around an emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan requested by the Bush administration.

The Democrats have added a timetable for Iraq withdrawal, benchmarks for the Iraqi government, and readiness requirements for American troops that can be waived by the president.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) dismissed Republican contentions that Democrats are trying to micromanage the war and should simply give the president the money he requested.

In both chambers, party lines appeared to be hardening as the debate advanced to whether to demand an actual timetable for withdrawal.

In the House, Republican leaders said their caucus was united in opposition to the Iraq spending bill. What this means is that the Democrats must hold almost all of their 233 members, in spite of deep ideological disagreements about the best way to respond to the war.

A major test will come Thursday, before the Appropriations Committee. Click here to read the official language of the Iraq resolution at hand.

ABOVE: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid discusses Democratic plans for the war in Iraq. He is flanked by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.).