Friday, 16 March 2007WASHINGTON ÔÇö Democrats failed to ram an Iraq troop withdrawal plan through the Senate Thursday, March 15, after first making headway on a similar move in the House of Representatives to force an end to the war four years after the US invasion.
"Today, the United States Senate wisely rejected a resolution that would have placed an artificial timetable on our mission in Iraq," President George W. Bush said in a speech to fellow Republicans after the vote, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Senate rejected by 50 votes to 48 a Democratic bill which set a goal of a withdrawal of troops by March 2008, in the latest twist of a bitter political tussle over the war, which has claimed 3,209 US lives.
Democrats had harbored little hope of piling up the 60 vote super-majority they needed to assure passage, but their strategy was designed to publicly tighten the screws on Republicans over the unpopular war.
both sides claimed victory after their latest fracas.
"We have had a very good day. The Republicans are rubber-stamping the president's failed policy, that is the message here," said Democratic majority leader Harry Reid.
Republican Minority leader Mitch McConnell however said the Senate had made a landmark declaration against a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq.
"I am very pleased that the majority of the Senate today expressed themselves in opposition to a specific timeline for a withdrawal of troops," he said.
"That is like sending a memo to the enemy: 'just hold on to a certain date and we are out.'"
In the House, Democrats did succeed in forcing a separate attempt to pull troops out of Iraq by September 2008 through the powerful Appropriations Committee.
Members voted to insert the deadline in Bush's 120 billion dollar budget request for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The full House is expected to consider the bill next week, but Bush had threatened to veto the bill, accusing Democrats of trying to micromanage the war and to handcuff his constitutional powers as commander in chief.
Democrats believe they have a mandate from US voters to begin a troop withdrawal, after winning control of Congress in November elections and a stream of opinion polls showing strong public support for leaving Iraq.
But Republicans have so far blocked all attempts to interfere with Bush's surge strategy that will see more than 21,500 troops deploy in a last-ditch attempt to pacify Iraq.
Number One Issue
"You've got to have a position on what may indeed be an insoluble problem. You've got to say something about Iraq," said Hess.
Experts believe that the unpopular Iraq invasion now poses a headache for the 2008 White House contenders.
"You've got to have a position on what may indeed be an insoluble problem. You've got to say something about Iraq," Stephen Hess, a presidential politics specialist at George Washington University, told AFP Friday, March 16.
The conflict is "the number one issue" on voters' minds ahead of the 2008 presidential election, muting ongoing national debates on immigration or energy policy, according to Eric Davis, a political science professor at Middlebury College in Vermont.
And Iraq shows no signs of going away, with Bush saying the final withdrawal of US troops from the war-wracked country will be something for future US presidents and future governments in Baghdad to decide.
"There are a lot of domestic issues that the American people are concerned about, the economy, immigration, gas prices, health care. Those issues are going to emerge to some extent," said former White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
"But a year from now, if things haven't improved in Iraq, then it (the war) will continue to dominate the debate in the Democratic primary, and to a lesser extent among Republicans," McClellan told AFP.
The parties face tension between their activist base supporters, who will decide the eventual presidential nomination over the next year and a half, and the general public that will cast ballots for president in November 2008.
Bush's Democratic foes hope to use deep anger over the war to capture the White House, the way they took control of the US Congress in November elections in which the conflict was by far the number one issue on voters' minds.
"The Democrats obviously want as many troops out of Iraq as possible as soon as possible," but lack the two-thirds congressional majority to override Bush's veto, leaving a stalemate, said Davis.
Bush's Republican base supports the war more than the US public at large does, which means "there is only so far that they (presidential hopefuls) can run away from the president," said Hess.
That means the nominee "might not be able to lead the Republicans to a 'win' in the general election," said Davis, noting that national opinion polls show deep opposition to the war, including Bush's new effort to pacify a country gripped by a bloody sectarian violence with more than a hundred people being killed on a daily basis.
Almost 34,000 civilians died last year as the raging sectarian violence reached new heights, above all in Baghdad.
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that one in eight Iraqis had been forced from their homes because of the bloodshed, warning that the numbers will only rise.
16 Marh 2007
Islam Online |
Friday, 16 March 2007
Iraq Pullout Bill
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