Monday, 26 March 2007The US Senate was to take up binding legislation Monday to withdraw US troops from Iraq within one year -- setting up a showdown with President George W. Bush, who has vowed a veto.
The Senate was to debate emergency funding of 121.6 billion dollars for the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan in a bill that would also set a strict March 2008 time line for the pullout of most US combat forces.
The House of Representatives on Friday, in a historic vote, approved a similar bill, although its version calls for a pullout by August 31, 2008.
The bill that squeaked through the House approved 124 billion dollars in emergency funding for the war, slightly more than the Senate version.
Bush has promised to veto the measure, and Vice President Dick Cheney vowed late Saturday that the administration would not allow an early withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
"A sudden withdrawal of our coalition would dissipate much of the effort that has gone into fighting the global war on terror and result in chaos and mounting danger," a defiant Cheney declared.
"For the sake of our own security, we will not stand by and let it happen."
Bush can reject bills only in their entirety, and may not veto the pullout deadline without rejecting the funding as well.
That places Bush in a box politically; while Americans want to end the war, they are also emphatic that the troops have all the funding and equipment they need.
Bush warned Saturday that if Congress does not approve a cash infusion for Iraq and Afghanistan by April 15, the forces in both countries "will face significant disruptions."
"My administration has presented a reasonable way forward on . . . ensuring that our men and women in uniform have the funds and the flexibility they need to win in Iraq," Bush said.
"It is not too late for us to work together. For the good of our nation, I ask the Democratic leaders in Congress to seize the opportunity before us and move beyond political statements to bipartisan action," he said.
While most Republicans support the president, dissatisfaction with events on the ground in Iraq is felt deeply by both parties.
On Sunday, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel vowed to join a Democratic colleague to introduce binding legislation that imposes conditions on Iraq's stability and ratchets up pressure on the White House.
Fellow Vietnam war veteran Senator Jim Webb will join Hagel to introduce legislation "that will in fact have the force of law in the future involvement of our military and our country, and (under) what conditions that future will be," said Hagel.
"It will be binding legislation, and it will be focused on deployment, redeployment, training, equipment," he said.
Cheney, appearing before the Republican Jewish Coalition in Manalapan, Florida, said the current political standoff would not result in a precipitous US withdrawal from Iraq, and restated his view that an early US withdrawal would be "a complete validation of the Al-Qaeda strategy."
Monday's debate marks the latest chapter in an increasingly tense standoff between the White House and Democratic-controlled Congress, which is under heavy pressure from constituents to find a way to wrap up the war, now in its fifth year, which most Americans now believe was a mistake.
Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress in a November election widely seen as a referendum on the war in Iraq.
Like the president, Democrats made clear they have no intention of backing down.
In a radio address Saturday, Representative Paul Hodes said the era of blank checks issued by Congress to the president was over and urged Bush to respond "by listening to the American people."
26.03.2007
Bakutoday.net |
Monday, 26 March 2007
US and Iraq
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