SAN DIEGO- U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein roasted the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war in a Monday speech to an audience of nearly 400 local business leaders and elected officials.

"The country is moving into civil war," the California Democrat said Monday about Iraq to a San Diego Chamber of Commerce meeting at a downtown hotel. "Our policy in Iraq is the result of a failed strategy and failed tactics."

Feinstein, 72, who is running for re-election this fall, called for Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, calling him "a very stubborn man who doesn't listen to others."

She said the time has come for Iraq to handle its own security and called for Bush to start withdrawing American troops from that country by the end of the year.

"I would say to the president he should remove all U.S.forces from Iraq by (the end of) 2007," she said, adding that the escalating sectarian violence that last month resulted in the death of more than 3,000 Iraqi civilians is quickly turning into a civil war.

On Monday, Bush criticized those who called for setting a timetable for withdrawal, saying "any sign we are going to leave before the job is done simply emboldens terrorists."

Bush said that if the U.S. announces a date for withdrawal Iraqi insurgents will simply "lie low," until the U.S. has left. And a victory by default for the insurgents would lead to Iraq becoming a safe haven for terrorists, he said.

Feinstein said Bush has been pushing the same tired argument for three and a half years, with little to show for it.

He's been saying "if we don't stay the course, XYZ is going to happen, but XYZ is happening now," Feinstein said. "The terrorists have only gained recruiting power. Iraqis want us out."

When the U.S. Senate voted 77 to 23 in October 2002 to authorize the president to use force against Iraq - a decision that led to the invasion - Feinstein voted yes.

On Monday she said that she and many other legislators based their decision to support the use of force against Iraq on a government document called the National Intelligence Estimate.

She said the estimate was "both misleading and wrong - I would not have voted to authorize the use of force had I known then what I now know."

The estimate was a comprehensive summary by the U.S. intelligence community of what it knew about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs and whether the country had weapons of mass destruction. The report stated that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and appeared to be putting together a nuclear program.

Many of the assertions in the document have been challenged.

The chair of the local Republican party said Feinstein's motives were political.

"Nice to see Feinstein visiting California again - it must be an election year," said San Diego County Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring.

Nehring said Feinstein's remarks about the war were further evidence of the Democratic Party's radical shift to the left.

"Their strategy is only one of retreat and defeat, in comparison to the president's strategy of adapt to win," Nehring said.

Encinitas Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan, a Democrat, turned out to hear Feinstein speak.

Houlihan said she was impressed with Feinstein's grasp of national security issues.

"Her analysis of the war was very insightful, very clear," Houlihan said. "I agree that we really need to employ a new strategy.

She said that she has long believed that Rumsfeld has failed to take into consideration the realities of war.

"Americans have never felt so unsafe," Houlihan said.

- Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.