News, November 2007
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U.S. House passes war spending bill with a condition for troop withdrawal from Iraq by December 2008
U.S. House passes war spending bill for troop withdrawal from Iraq
www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-15 13:14:41 Print
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) --
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday to allocate 50 billion U.S. dollars for its war in Iraq, but demanding President George W. Bush to start troop withdrawals in 30 days and end combat by Dec. 15, 2008.
"The fact is, we can no longer sustain the military deployment in Iraq," said Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "Staying there in the manner that we are there is no longer an option."
The legislation, which was passed 218-203, was merely considered a symbolic protest at Bush's war policies, as the White House has pledged to veto the bill.
In response, the White House said in a statement that the votes for the bill "put the interests of radical interest groups ahead of the needs of our military and their mission."
The bill only authorized about a quarter of the 196 billion dollars that Bush has requested for war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan in the fiscal year 2008 starting Oct. 1.
The money included in the bill should be used to redeploy troops and "not to extend or prolong the war," it added.
The Iraq war funding showdown will continue when the bill is passed to the Senate, since its Democratic majority leader Harry Reid has warned that Bush would not get any more money for the war this year if the bill is blocked by the upper house, thus dragging the Pentagon deeper into its financial nightmare.
Hours before the scheduled vote in the House, the White House sent Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to a closed-door meeting with lawmakers to brief them on Iraq and urged senators not to support the bill, according to U.S. media reports.
Apart from a timetable for troop withdrawals, the bill also requires all government interrogators follow the Army Field Manual, which is based on Geneva Convention standards, to bar harsh and aggressive interrogation techniques.
The White House dismissed the demand, saying the Geneva Conventions should not apply to "captured terrorists who openly flout that law."
U.S. House passes bill with troop withdrawal timelines
Baghdad - Voices of Iraq Thursday , 15 /11 /2007 Time 8:14:01
Baghdad, Nov 15, (VOI) -
The Democratic-controlled U.S. House Wednesday approved a war-funding bill with a timeline for troop withdrawal from Iraq and substantially less funds to conduct the war than U.S. President George W. Bush originally requested.
The bill was approved by 218 to 203, with 4 Republicans joining 214 Democrats in favour in a vote just before 10 p.m. The bill states that the primary purpose of the money "should be to transition the mission of United States Armed Forces in Iraq and undertake their redeployment."
It demands that Bush begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within 30 days of passage, with a goal of having American combat troops out of Iraq by December 15, 2008. The $50 billion "bridge fund" is about a quarter of the nearly $200 billion the Bush administration requested to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2008. Most of the money is slated for Iraq, where the Pentagon estimates the cost of its operations at about $10 billion a month.
"The fact is, we can no longer militarily sustain the deployment in Iraq," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "Staying there in the manner we are there is no longer an option," she affirmed. 3,865 U.S. servicemen have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in March 2003, according to U.S. official statistics. Pelosi praised the performance of American troops, but said Iraqi leaders have failed to take the steps needed to reach a political settlement to the four-year-old war.
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