Feingold: "Congress Should Have Stood Strong"
    By Deniz Yeter
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Wednesday 23 May 2007

    Failing to muster enough votes to override an ensured veto from President Bush, Democrats have decided to withdraw their bid to include a timetable in the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill.

    The decision comes at a time when the Iraqi government is preparing for a two-month vacation, and while civil war and sectarian conflict continue to rock the country. Over the weekend, at least 15 US soldiers and dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians were killed. To date, more than 3,400 US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed in the war since the US invaded the country in March 2003.

    It also comes days after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with top White House officials, insisting that nonbinding benchmarks be included in the Iraq spending bill.

    Pelosi, who signed off on the supplemental bill, said Tuesday she would oppose the "Iraq portion" of the legislation because it does not include a clear-cut timetable to begin withdrawing troops from the region.

    The California Democrat said she did not intend "to vote for something that does not have a timetable."

    House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) told reporters Tuesday that because President Bush would not support legislation that contained benchmarks, Democrats had no choice but to send the president a bill giving in to the administration's demands.

    "The president has made it very clear he's not going to sign timelines," Hoyer said. "We can't pass timelines over his veto."

    A vote on the more than $100 billion emergency spending bill is expected to take place before the Memorial Day weekend. The bill, in its current form, would fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq until September 30. Additionally, Democrats hope to include $20 billion in domestic spending in the final version of the legislation.

    The next opportunity Democrats will have to attach timelines and benchmarks to a spending bill over the war will be October 1, when Congress will consider the defense appropriations bill.

    Strong Congressional opponents of the war, such as the Out of Iraq Caucus and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) expressed their disappointment late Tuesday over the concession.

    "Under the president's Iraq policies, our military has been overburdened, our national security has been jeopardized, and thousands of Americans have been killed or injured," Feingold said in a prepared statement released by his office Tuesday.

    "Despite these realities, and the support of a majority of Americans for ending the president's open-ended mission in Iraq, Congressional leaders now propose a supplemental appropriations bill that does nothing to end this disastrous war," Feingold said.

    "I cannot support a bill that contains nothing more than toothless benchmarks, and allows the president to continue what may be the greatest foreign policy blunder in our nation's history," Feingold added. "There has been a lot of tough talk from members of Congress about wanting to end this war, but it looks like the desire for political comfort won out over real action. Congress should have stood strong, acknowledged the will of the American people, and insisted on a bill requiring a real change of course in Iraq."

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