Senate Approves Iraq Timeline

Mar 28, 05:20 AM

Current Headlines: By Jake Thompson, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Mar. 28--WASHINGTON -- Nebraska Sens. Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson played key roles Tuesday as Democrats pushed forward with a demand that U.S. troops begin leaving Iraq later this year and end combat by March 2008.

On a 50-48 vote, the Senate rebuffed a GOP effort to strip a nonbinding troop withdrawal goal from a $122 billion war spending bill that Democratic leaders hope to pass this week.

That vote moved the Democratic-run Congress closer to a showdown with Republican President Bush, who has threatened to veto any legislation calling for a troop withdrawal.

Both Republican Hagel and Democrat Nelson reversed their earlier votes on a similar nonbinding goal of withdrawing combat forces a year from now. Tuesday, both voted for the new troop withdrawal timeline.

Hagel noted that the timeline remains nonbinding but said, "Is there something wrong with that? March of 2008 -- that is five years we have been there. We will have done significant damage to our Marines and our Army and our National Guard.

"We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam."

It is time, Hagel said, for Congress to develop "an honorable and responsible exit strategy from Iraq."

Nelson said he changed his vote because the latest bill includes benchmarks that he wrote to put more responsibility on the Iraqi government and to require regular reports to Congress from U.S. commanders in Iraq.

"Setting measurable goals is absolutely essential for our strategy in Iraq, and I've been pushing for these conditions for staying for more than two years," Nelson said.

"We can't win Iraq's civil war. That will take Iraqi leadership," he said. "Congress must begin the process of making the Iraqi government accountable for Iraq. To do so, we must deal with the funding and future role of the American troops. If we do not do so, we will be failing the American people."

The withdrawal timeline was attached to the bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last week, the House passed a similar spending bill 218-212. Whereas the Senate bill seeks to end combat missions by March 31, 2008, the House called for a fall 2008 deadline.

In threatening a veto, President Bush has said his new strategy of adding 21,500 troops in Iraq needs time to work.

"This (Senate bill) and other provisions would place freedom and democracy at grave risk, embolden our enemies and undercut the administration's plan to develop the Iraqi economy," the White House said in a statement.

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., offered the rejected amendment to kill the troop withdrawal provision, which many Republicans said would give away the nation's war plans and interfere with efforts of U.S. military commanders.

"This is like sending a memo to our enemies to tell them to rest, replan until they day that we leave," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "It's also a memo to our friends that we intend to walk away, regardless of what we leave behind."

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said opinion polls show the majority of Americans are weary of the war and want it to wind down.

"This war is not worth spilling another drop of American blood," Reid said. "It is time for a new direction."

Tuesday's vote was a high-stakes showdown in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slender 51-49 majority.

On March 15, the Senate voted 50-48 against a nonbinding resolution to set a goal of removing combat forces by March 31, 2008. Nelson and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., were the only two Democrats voting against the withdrawal timeline at that time.

Then, Reid modified the proposal to include the benchmarks wanted by Nelson.

Those benchmarks call on the Iraqi government to meet certain responsibilities, such as quelling violence in Baghdad, training Iraqi security forces and dividing oil revenues equally among the country's religious and ethnic groups.

The Nebraska Democrat's language also calls for America's top commander in Iraq, now Gen. David Patreaus, to deliver regular reports to Congress on conditions there.

McConnell warned that Congress will be unable to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override a Bush veto. Both sides then would have to start over on providing funds needed for troops now serving in Iraq.

Also Tuesday, Hagel and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., introduced another amendment to the spending bill that they said would limit the length of troop deployments and require certain levels of training and equipment for soldiers.

"This amendment puts the focus where it should be, on the men and women of our military," Hagel said. "No American wants to allow a single soldier or Marine to be deployed without meeting the military's standard of readiness.

"Yet that is what we are doing. We are breaking our military and this amendment will help put a stop it."

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Copyright (c) 2007, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

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