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Analysis: Voters Rebuff Bush on Iraq

Council on Foreign Relations

November 8, 2006
Prepared by: Robert McMahon

Broad disapproval of the Iraq war helped Democrats gain control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994 (LAT). The Senate may go Democratic too, but one race there remained undecided a day after the vote (MSNBC). The likely next Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), called the results a mandate for change on policy in Iraq. While Democrats will have the power to call investigations in Congress, they are not expected to curtail the military’s spending needs for Iraq in the short run, writes William M. Arkin, a blogger for the Washington Post. One immediate impact of the elections, however, was the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (NYT), sought by leading Democrats who accused him of bungling the postwar planning in Iraq. The Bush administration is likely to face unaccustomed congressional pressure for a redeployment of forces but foreign policymaking still rests firmly with the administration. The Christian Science Monitor looks at the prospects for Bush administration shifts on Iraq policy in the new domestic political landscape.

President George W. Bush says he will work for bipartisan cooperation but added if the Democrats call “to get out now, regardless,” it’s going to be hard to work together. Meanwhile, the administration has assured Iraqis that Democrats and Republicans will work together to help “the mission in Iraq succeed” (McClatchy). Bush says his administration will closely study the forthcoming recommendations of the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton commission on Iraq. Members of both parties seem to be putting a lot of stock in the commission's views, but at the end of the day it is Bush's call on troop deployment, James M. Lindsay, an expert on Congress and CFR's former director of studies, tells CFR.org's Bernard Gwertzman.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.