Congress to Pass Troop Withdrawal for October!!!
 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-w...na-pol-us-iraq

WASHINGTON — Defying a fresh presidential veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Congress will pass legislation within days that requires the beginning of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by Oct. 1 and sets a goal of a complete pullout by April 1, 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday.
In remarks prepared for delivery, Reid said that under the legislation, the troops that remain after next April 1 could only train Iraqi security units, protect U.S forces and conduct "targeted counter-terror operations."

Reid spoke a few hours after President George W. Bush said he will reject any legislation along the lines of what Democrats will pass. "I will strongly reject an artificial timetable (for) withdrawal and/or Washington politicians trying to tell those who wear the uniform how to do their job."

The president made his comments to reporters at the White House as he met with senior military leaders, including his top general in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

Taken together, Reid's speech and Bush's comments inaugurated a week of extraordinary confrontation between the president and the new Democratic-controlled Congress over a war that has taken the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Under an agreement by Democratic leaders, the final bill could trigger the withdrawal of U.S. troops as early as July 1 if Bush could not certify that the Iraqi government was making progress in disarming militias, reducing sectarian violence and forging political compromises.

The bill also would withhold foreign aid money should the Iraqi government not meet certain benchmarks.

Reid drew criticism from Bush and others last week when he said the war in Iraq had been lost.

He did not repeat the assertion in his prepared speech, saying that "The military mission has long since been accomplished. The failure has been political. It has been policy. It has been presidential."

Reid said that in addition to the timetable, the legislation will establish standards for the Iraqi government to meet in terms of "making progress on security, political reconciliation and improving the lives of ordinary Iraqis who have suffered so much."

The measure also would launch diplomatic, economic and political policy changes, Reid said.

Reid had made similar comments at a White House meeting last week among Bush and top lawmakers, and this time, the president's spokeswoman fired back. She said it was Reid who was ignoring reality, not the president.

Reid is in denial about the vicious nature of the enemy and about the U.S.-led plan to provide more security in Iraq, said deputy press secretary Dana Perino. "He's also in denial that a surrender date _ he thinks it is a good idea. It is not a good idea. It is defeat. It is a death sentence for the millions of Iraqis who voted for a constitution, who voted for a government, who voted for a free and Democratic society."

Negotiators for the House of Representatives and the Senate arranged a meeting to ratify the timetable that Reid laid out. The demand for a change in course will be attached to a funding bill that is needed to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reid said Bush was in "a state of denial" over the war, and likened him to another commander in chief four decades ago. "I remember when President Johnson, trying to save his political legacy, initiated the first of many surges into Vietnam in 1965," he said.

Reid said thousands more U.S. troops died in Vietnam as a result. Now, he said, Bush "is the only person who fails to face this war's reality - and that failure is devastating not just for Iraq's future, but for ours."

Reid also challenged Bush to present an alternative if, as expected, he vetoes the Democratic legislation.

The president said that Petraeus will go to Congress to tell lawmakers what is going right in Iraq _ and what is not.

"It's a tough time, as the general will tell Congress," Bush said. Still, the president insisted, progress is being made in Iraq as more U.S. troops head into the country to provide security.

do you think we're ready to pull out of iraq?

i dont think we should pull out just yet

Pull the fuck out! Jesus, how many more of our soldiers have to die in this pointless war.

The parallel to Johnson 40 years ago is right on target.

God, when will we ever learn.

I think we can all feel pretty thankful you're not running the country, Crypto!

Well we are not ready since, our President Bush destroyed whatever hope we had.

all i have to say is....



IT'S A TRAP!

Bush is just trying to save face. Pulling out would be admitting personal defeat. He's not smart enough to figure out a way to do it that doesn't make him look like he made a mistake.

Well that just mean you have not studied the subject well. Now that is a TRAP.

All I want to know what happened to Osama Bin Laden? Afghanistan?

oh god...
i cant even imagine what this country will be like if we have the democrats running this country in 08.

WE, the US of A, started this war, fed it, neglected it, inflamed it, and now we are just going to leave and ditch millions of innocent Iraquis in a bloodbath civil war we created? That is real nice. It is fucking RIDICULOUS.

regardless of how one feels about the war, it will be nothing if not wholesale carnage in Iraq if we leave. what about afghanistan? we never picked up the pieces there either and now the taliban is back witha vengeance.

cut and run is exactly the arrogance that the world hates about the USA. go in, fuck a country up the ass royally, then take off when it becomes an "inconvenience." such a fucking backwards nation we are.

we started this mess. we created this mess. we exacerbated this mess, and now we will run away from it.

The democrats are fucking ridiculous stupid fools, looking for a quick polarizing "statement" to get the liberals behind them. This si exactly what republicans do when they start emphasizing such non-important issues as gay marriage and abortion. they would rather talk about that because it splits the constituency up into TWO camps. That is what the democrats are doing with this pull out.

How many democratic senators and representatives ahave been in the military? I do not think it is that many. same goes for the current administration, who has a draft dodger and three others who did not serve in the military.

THANK YOU

we cant just... pull out
we have stabilize the situation first.

Well fucking said.

*CLAPS*

they cant stay but they cant go. the place will never be stable and has become a terrorist playground. at least someone go rich though eh.

true jon boy. the USA NY Stock Exchange market is reaching 13000 for the first time.
so add this up. record stock market profits, record trade deficit, record debt by the USA (mostly borrowing frokm our good commie friend China). record spending by our government on foreign wars and not on infratsructure.

who does this benefit if not multinational corporations who have absolutely no allegiance to our nation (USA) nor to our people?
How much fucking money are the friends of preznit dubya making off of this?

will somebody please think of the children?

The war was and is a mistake. It's a civil war. We have no reason to be there.

I had no idea Young Republicans were into Sonic Youth!