Washington ? Senators from both parties urged the Bush administration on Sunday to make a reassessment of the situation in Iraq and adjust its policies aimed at pacifying Americans.

But Bush readied a firm defense of his Iraq policy, and a sharp new attack on rival John Kerry’s stance, for a speech this morning.

“The fact is a crisp, sharp analysis of our policies is required. We didn’t do that in Vietnam, and we saw 11 years of casualties mount to the point where we finally lost,” said Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran who is co-chairman of President Bush’s re-election committee in Nebraska.

“We can’t lose this. It is too important,” Hagel, R-Neb., said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

A major problem, said leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was incompetence by the administration in reconstructing the country’s shattered infrastructure.

The chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, noted that Congress appropriated $18.4 billion a year ago this week for reconstruction. No more than $1 billion has been spent. “This is the incompetence in the administration,” Lugar, R-Ind., said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Exactly right,” interjected Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, the committee’s top Democrat. He said later: “This has been incompetence so far. Five percent of the $18.4 billion that George Bush keeps … beating the other candidate up and about the head for how he voted and didn’t vote, and he’s released 5 percent.”

Sen. John McCain, who has campaigned often with the president, said mistakes in Iraq generally could be attributed to inadequate manpower. McCain, R-Ariz., said problems began arising shortly after the dash through the desert to take Baghdad, the capital, in April 2003.

“We made serious mistakes right after the initial successes by not having enough troops on the ground, by allowing the looting, by not securing the borders,” McCain said.

“Airstrikes don’t do it; artillery doesn’t do it. Boots on the ground do it,” McCain told “Fox News Sunday.”

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said Bush had pointed out from the beginning the risks of combat in Iraq.

“I find it shocking that some people are surprised by the fact that it is a long and difficult conflict,” Kyl said.

Bush planned to use that line of attack against Kerry today, seeking to counter increasingly hard-hitting language the Massachusetts senator has been using on Bush’s Iraq policy.

In a speech in New Hampshire, Bush “will step up his critique of John Kerry’s policy on Iraq or retreat and defeat,” said Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel. “Our troops deserve better than to hear Kerry’s campaign pushing pessimism and lack of faith in the mission.”