WASHINGTON - A sharply divided House voted Friday to order President Bush to bring combat troops home from Iraq next year, a victory for Democrats in an epic war-powers struggle and Congress' boldest challenge yet to the administration's policy.
Ignoring a White House veto threat, lawmakers voted 218-212, mostly along party lines, for a binding war spending bill requiring that combat operations cease before September 2008, or earlier if the Iraqi government does not meet certain requirements. Democrats said it was time to heed the mandate of their election sweep last November, which gave them control of Congress.
"The American people have lost faith in the president's conduct of this war," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. "The American people see the reality of the war, the president does not."
The vote, echoing clashes between lawmakers and the White House over the Vietnam War four decades ago, pushed the Democratic-led Congress a step closer to a constitutional collision with the wartime commander in chief. Bush has insisted that lawmakers allow more time for his strategy of sending nearly 30,000 additional troops to Iraq to work.
The roll call also marked a triumph for Pelosi., who labored in recent days to bring together a Democratic caucus deeply divided over the war. Some of the party's more liberal members voted against the bill because they said it would not end the war immediately, while more conservative Democrats said they were reluctant to take away flexibility from generals in the field.
Republicans were almost completely unified in their fight against the bill, which they said was tantamount to admitting failure in Iraq.
"The stakes in Iraq are too high and the sacrifices made by our military personnel and their families too great to be content with anything but success," said Republican Whip Roy Blunt (news, bio, voting record), R-Mo.
Voting for the bill were 216 Democrats and two Republicans — Wayne Gilchrest (news, bio, voting record) of Maryland and Walter Jones (news, bio, voting record) of North Carolina. Of the 212 members who opposed the bill, 198 were Republicans and 14 were Democrats.
The bill marks the first time Congress has used its budget power to try to end the war, now in its fifth year, by attaching the withdrawal requirements to a bill providing $124 billion to finance military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of this year.
Excluding the funds in the House-passed bill, Congress has so far provided more than $500 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including about $350 billion for Iraq alone, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. More than 3,200 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since war began in March 2003.
Across the Capitol, the Senate planned to debate as early as Monday legislation that also calls for a troop withdrawal — and has also drawn a Bush veto threat.
That $122 billion measure would require that Bush begin bringing home an unspecified number of troops within four months with the goal of getting all combat troops out by March 31, 2008. Unlike the House bill's 2008 date, the Senate deadline is not a firm requirement.
As I previously said "The war in Iraq is central to the global war on terrorism. Forget the chicken/egg debate of whether Al Qaeda was in Iraq before America's invasion or not, the simple fact is that they are there now. Al Qaeda is spending considerable resources in trying to win Iraq. America can not let that happen."
Is scary that the democrats care more for political games than recognizing the reality that this country is safer with the war in Iraq than without it. It is sad that the democrats rather cow tail to our enemy and surrender any chance we have for long term peace by withdrawing funding for our troops.
Withdrawal was not a good idea in the 1970s in Vietnam and it is an even more dangerous idea now. Will withdrawal pacify Iran, who has not been pacified since loosing the Ottaman Empire? Will pulling out make Al Queada less likely to attack us? No in fact, more likely. Will surrender make the mad mullahs recognize Israel faster? Are you kidding? Will surrender lower oil prices or the world economy?
Pelosi and company are weakening America from the inside out. What will Pelosi say to the victims of the next 9/11 attack? Well we thought withdrawal from Iraq would appease them?
No comments:
Post a Comment