From the NY Times -“G.O.P. Tries to Split Democrats With Vote on Iraq War”:
House Republicans are attempting to split the ranks of the Democrats tonight by offering a resolution to withdraw American troops from Iraq immediately. The Republican-controlled House is expected to defeat the measure in a vote that the Republicans hope will leave the Democrats in disarray.The Democrats will surely denounce the quick vote on Jack Murtha’s resolution as a stunt but, if so, it’s a good one. The Dems have been thrashing on Iraq for months now without having to define where they stand on this critical issue. They were probably hoping to leave the question open before the Thanksgiving break; now they can look forward to weeks of Tim Russert and Chris Matthews asking why, when pressed, they backed down from their own rhetoric.
Update – Lorie Byrd is live-blogging the debate and call-in show along with Leon on RedState and No End But Victory.
Another update – Final roll call vote: 403-3 with McKinney, Serrano, and Wexler voting “aye” and six other Democrats declaring “present.”
4 comments:
I can't wait to hear the complaints in the media and from the Dems about the forced vote on the issue. The talking points are being drafted as we speak.
This move is brilliant, and way overdue. Stand up and be counted.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top U.S. commander in Iraq has submitted a plan to the Pentagon for withdrawing troops in Iraq, according to a senior defense official.
Gen. George Casey submitted the plan to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It includes numerous options and recommends that brigades -- usually made up of about 2,000 soldiers each -- begin pulling out of Iraq early next year.
The proposal comes as tension grows in both Washington and Baghdad following a call by a senior House Democrat to bring U.S. troops home and the deaths of scores of people by suicide bombers in two Iraqi cities.
House Republicans were looking for a showdown Friday after Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and well-respected Vietnam veteran, presented a resolution that would force the president to withdraw the nearly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq "at the earliest predictable date." (Watch Murtha urge legislators to sign off on pulling out troops -- 1:37)
Murtha on Thursday called the administration's management of the conflict "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion" that is "uniting the enemy against us."
"It's time to bring the troops home," he said.
Republicans were looking to lock horns with Democrats after Murtha's remarks.
Rather than distancing themselves from Friday's resolution, House majority leader Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, welcomed a debate and vote, forcing Democrats to stand alongside Murtha or go on record against the withdrawal. (Read about the House showdown)
Meanwhile, at least 90 people were killed in two suicide bombings in Iraq, according to hospital officials. The U.S. military put the casualties at 150, without giving a breakdown. (Full story)
The deadliest of the attacks took place in Khanaqin, a Shiite-Kurdish town about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Baquba. Two suicide bombers detonated bombs near or inside Shiite Muslim mosques, destroying both of the structures, Iraqi and U.S. authorities said.
Scores of people were killed.
The attacks came during midday prayer services, when the mosques were full of worshippers, many of them children, the Khanaqin mayor said.
Also Friday, two suicide car bombings in Baghdad killed at least six people near a hotel, police said. (Watch security camera video of suicide car bomb -- :30)
The hotel is near the Iraqi Interior Ministry compound, where about 170 detainees were found last weekend, some with signs of torture, according to Iraqi officials. There were no reports of damage to the compound, and the U.S. military said the hotel was the target of the attack.
Rumsfeld has yet to sign Casey's withdrawal plan but, the senior defense official said, implementation of the plan, if approved, would start after the December 15 Iraqi elections so as not to discourage voters from going to the polls.
The plan, which would withdraw a limited amount of troops during 2006, requires that a host of milestones be reached before troops are withdrawn.
Top Pentagon officials have repeatedly discussed some of those milestones: Iraqi troops must demonstrate that they can handle security without U.S. help; the country's political process must be strong; and reconstruction and economic conditions must show signs of stability.
CNN's Dana Bash, Arwa Damon, Enes Dulami and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/18/iraq.plan/index.html
This website and many others have criticized the Democrats for not offering a counterproposal on Iraq. On November 14, under "Democrats raise questions but have no answers," you write "There you go: on the single most critical issue of our time, the Democrats have nothing to offer aside from criticism." Days later, Rep. Murtha says something more concrete, and the Republican House seizes on it, misrepresents it, and changes the wording for an immediate joke vote. This site's reaction? "Backed into a corner of their own construction." "As a stunt, it's a good one." This reaction apparently constitutes sober conservative thought in November, 2005.
That the "good stunt" did not "leave the Democrats in disarray" (a place where the Dems apparently simultaneously are, and need to be led) will surely be immaterial to those chanting "we must not cut and run, cut and run, cut and run."
You got the Iraq specifics you pretended you've so long wanted, and they immediately became a set-up line for a cheap GOP put-on. With Bush now strangling on his own lies and unsaleability, don't start wailing anew when sensible Democratic politicians choose instead to sit back and enjoy the biggest American political collapse in 30 years. They'll be responsible for handling Iraq soon enough.
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