US Senate Democrats ignored a veto threat and pushed through a
bill Thursday requiring President George W. Bush to start
withdrawing US troops from "the civil war in Iraq," dealing a rare,
sharp rebuke to the president as a wartime commander in chief.
In a mostly party line 51-47 vote, the Senate signed off on a
bill providing US$122 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. It also orders Bush to begin withdrawing troops within
120 days of passage while setting a nonbinding goal of ending
combat operations by on March 31, 2008.
The vote came shortly after Bush, in a move that his aides said
was unprecedented, invited all Republicans from the House of
Representatives to the White House to appear with him in a sort of
pep rally to bolster his position in the continuing war policy
fight.
"We stand united in saying loud and clear that when we've got a
troop in harm's way, we expect that troop to be fully funded," Bush
said, surrounded by Republicans, "and we got commanders making
tough decisions on the ground, we expect there to be no strings on
our commanders."
"We expect the Congress to be wise about how they spend the
people's money," he said.
The Senate vote marked its boldest challenge yet to the
administration's handling of a war, now in its fifth year, that has
cost the lives of more than 3,200 American troops, more than 50,000
Iraqis and more than US$350 billion. In a show of support for the
president, most Republicans opposed the measure, unwilling to back
a troop withdrawal schedule.
The House, also run by Democrats, narrowly passed similar
legislation last week. Party leaders seem determined that the final
bill negotiated between the two chambers to send to Bush will
demand some sort of timetable for winding down the war setting them
on course for a veto showdown with the president.
"We've spoken the words the American people wanted us to speak,"
said Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid. "There must be a
change of direction in the war in Iraq, the civil war in Iraq."
"The Senate and the House have held together and done what we've
done," he told reporters. "It's now in his corner to do what he
wants to do."
In a letter to Bush, the House leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and
Reid had said earlier: "This Congress is taking the responsible
course and responding to needs that have been ignored by your
administration and the prior Congress."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president respects
the role of Congress - and Congress should respect his.
(China Daily via agencies March 30, 2007)
