Macomb County’s two lawmakers split again Thursday on a vote to withdraw U.S. troops from the Iraq war, with Rep. Sander Levin supporting legislation to draw down forces and Rep. Candice Miller opposed.

Their votes came as the House adopted, by a 223-201 margin, a bill to begin a troop pullback within 120 days and to limit U.S. forces in Iraq by April 1 to three duties — fighting al-Qaida insurgents, protecting America’s diplomatic staff, and training Iraqi military and police personnel.

Miller, a Harrison Township Republican who has criticized the management of the war, said she is not yet ready to call for a withdrawal, fearing “horrific bloodshed” between Iraqi Sunnis and Shia would result. But Miller said her patience is running thin with the Bush administration.

“I have been extremely skeptical about the (U.S. troop) surge from the start,” said Miller, who served as 2000 and 2004 Michigan co-chair of President Bush’s election campaigns. “I see an unwillingness or inability of the Iraqi government to ensure their own freedom.

“I will tell you: Hope is fading.”

The House action came just hours after the White House released a report concluding that the Iraqi government has made progress on eight of 18 benchmarks set by the administration to indicate military and political progress toward a stable nation.

Thursday’s vote on Capitol Hill marked the third time this year that Miller and Levin, a Royal Oak Democrat who represents most of Macomb County, have parted ways on troop redeployments. But the two Macomb lawmakers are close in their overall stance on the 4-year war, with both emphasizing dismay at the Iraqis’ inability to make substantial progress on benchmarks aimed at reconciliation.

“Six months into the surge, there is no indication that the Iraqis are coming together to make the political decisions necessary to end the sectarian violence that is tearing their country apart,” Levin said in a speech on the House floor. “Time has shown that whatever small chance there is of the Iraqi factions coming together, it will not happen as long as the U.S. military commitment in Iraq remains open-ended.”

The House bill largely mirrors a Senate provision offered by Levin’s brother, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin.

Miller, a House Armed Services Committee member, raised eyebrows in February when she compared incremental military mistakes made in Iraq with the shortcomings in Vietnam. On Thursday, she said an eagerly awaited “unvarnished assessment” due in September by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Patraeus, about the impact of the 21,000-troop surge could serve as the tipping point for her and many Republican lawmakers.

The congresswoman said she has concluded that the administration and Congress are more interested in a unified Iraq than the Iraqis.

“I don’t think they are nationalists in the way that we are, or Germans are, or the Japanese are,” she said. “Their allegiances are to their religion, and then to their tribe.”

In a press conference addressing the report on benchmarks, Bush said that the nation suffers from “war fatigue.” But the president has vowed to veto any troop redeployment legislation that comes out of the Democratcontrolled Congress.

A new Michigan poll released on Thursday found that 21 percent of those surveyed statewide approved of the president’s handling of Iraq, compared to a 71 percent disapproval rating.

“It has become painfully obvious that the White House is incapable of changing course in Iraq,” Levin said. “The Bush administration’s talking points about the situation in Iraq change from week to week, but the fundamental strategy remains the same. The president is determined that our troops will remain in Iraq no matter what.”