WORLD / Middle East
Senate GOP turns back Iraq pullout plan
(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-16 09:05
WASHINGTON - Democrats aggressively challenged President Bush's Iraq
policy at both ends of the Capitol on Thursday, gaining House committee
approval for a troop withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008, but suffering
defeat in the Senate on a less sweeping plan to end US participation in
the war.
Senate Republicans hold a news conference in Washington Thursday, March
15, 2007, following a series votes on Iraq. Left to right are Sen. Jon
Kyl, R-Ariz., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. [AP]
Anti-war Democrats prevailed on a near-party line vote of 36-28 in the
House Appropriations Committee, brushing aside a week-old veto threat
from the administration and overcoming unyielding opposition from
Republicans.
"I want this war to end. I don't want to go to any more funerals," said
New York Rep. Rep. Jose Serrano , one of several liberal Democrats who
have pledged their support for the legislation despite preferring a
faster end to the war.
"Nobody wants our troops out of Iraq more than I do," countered Rep. C.W.
Bill Young of Florida, who sought unsuccessfully to scuttle the timeline
for a troop withdrawal. "But we can't afford to turn over Iraq to
al-Qaida."
In the Senate, after weeks of skirmishing, Republicans easily turned back
Democratic legislation requiring a troop withdrawal to begin within 120
days. The measure set no fixed deadline for completion of the
redeployment, but set a goal of March 31, 2008. The vote was 50-48
against the measure, 12 short of the 60 needed for passage.
Senate Democrats promptly said they would try again to force a change in
Bush's policy beginning next week when they begin work on legislation
providing money for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The developments coincided with the traditional St. Patrick's Day
luncheon in the Capitol, an annual social event hosted by the speaker of
the House and attended by the president. For an hour or so, while
lawmakers were debating the war, Bush and the leader of the political
opposition, Speaker Nancy Pelosi , were seated near one another in an
ornate hall not far from the Capitol Rotunda.
If they discussed the war, which has so far claimed the lives of more
than 3,200 US troops, there was no evidence of it.
The day's votes in Congress underscored the extraordinary, unpredictable
wartime clash between commander in chief and lawmakers.
In the House, only one committee Democrat, liberal Rep. Barbara Lee of
California, voted against her party's plan, saying it did not go far
enough. "I believe the American people sent a mandate to us to bring home
our men and women before the end of the year," she said.
Overall, the committee vote strongly suggested Democrats will be able to
push their troop withdrawal timetable through the full House next week.
Even so, there is little if any prospect the Senate will agree to
anything remotely similar. And even if it does, Bush's threatened veto
would force Pelosi and other war critics back to the drafting table.
It took weeks for the Senate to agree to hold a formal debate on
Democratic calls for a change in war policy, and by the time it occurred,
the result was utterly predictable. So much so that Sen. John McCain ,
the Arizona Republican who is running for the White House in 2008,
skipped the vote to campaign in Iowa.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky led the opposition
to the measure.
"This is a dangerous piece of legislation. It is constitutionally dubious
and it would authorize a scattered band of United States senators to tie
the hand" of the commander in chief, he said.
McConnell said it would be "absolutely fatal" to the mission of US troops
in Iraq.
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