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 News from Around the Americas | April 2007 
Democrats to Push March 31 Iraq War Withdrawal
 Richard Cowan - Reuters
| | A US soldier smokes a cigarette as he patrols an area at Baghdad's al-Mansur district. Democratic lawmakers are poised this week to send Iraq war funding legislation to US President George W. Bush, who has vowed to veto the measure if it includes a withdrawal timetable. (AFP/Wisam Sami) |
Congressional Democrats, ignoring a promised veto by President George W. Bush, on Monday pushed ahead with a war funding bill that sets March 31 as the goal for pulling most U.S. troops out of Iraq.
The legislation, approved by a Democratic-controlled panel made up of members of the Senate and House of Representatives, will be voted on by the full Congress this week.
It also would require troop withdrawals to begin no later than October 1, and as early as July 1 if Bush cannot certify by then that progress is being made toward a more stable Iraq.
Unlike a tougher House version of the money bill, which required all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by September 1, 2008, this new version merely establishes next March as a nonbinding date for withdrawing, the approach favored by the Senate.
Democratic leaders advanced the $100 billion war-funding bill as a debate continued to rage between Bush and Democrats over the handling of the war, now in its fifth year.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, acknowledged his party does not have the votes to overcome the expected Bush veto.
But going ahead with this bill, Obey said, would let the Iraqis know that the U.S. military commitment is not open-ended and would further pressure Bush to look for a way "to extricate ourselves from this civil war."
Obey's Republican counterpart on the committee, Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, said that with this legislation, "Congress is preparing to send a message of surrender" to its enemies in Iraq.
Earlier, at the White House, Bush reinforced his veto warning. "I believe strongly that politicians in Washington shouldn't be telling generals how to do their job," he said, adding, "I believe artificial timetables of withdrawal would be a mistake."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who last week said the war in Iraq was "lost," on Monday accused Bush of being out of touch.
"State of Denial"
Referring to Bush's remarks last week asserting there has been progress in Iraq, Reid said: "The White House transcript says the president made those remarks in the state of Michigan. I believe he made them in the state of denial."
A wave of car bombings killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad on Wednesday marking the worst violence since Bush in January authorized an escalation of U.S. troops to secure the Iraqi capital against sectarian violence.
"It has now been three months and despite the president's happy talk, no progress has been made," Reid said.
The new version of the legislation calls on military leaders to ensure troops are adequately trained, equipped and rested before going to combat. Critics say that after four years of war, the Pentagon is rushing troops to battle unprepared and exhausted.
Assuming the legislation passes Congress but the expected Bush veto is not overturned, Democratic leaders would then try to quickly write a new bill to continue funding the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is still unclear whether any conditions would be attached.
In the face of Democrats' deepening opposition to the war, and U.S. troop deaths topping 3,300, Bush is hoping to maintain enough political support for the war to give his troop surge more time to work.
Bush called Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, to Washington this week to try to build congressional support for continuing the war.
Besides the war funds, Congress also is including about $20 billion in new money for veterans' health care, hurricane rebuilding, children health insurance and other programs.
To blunt Bush's complaints that much of this money was unnecessary, Democrats have abandoned some of the farm aid that Republicans mocked most, such as help to the spinach, peanut and sugar industries.
Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Susan Cornwell. |
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