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US Lawmakers Work to Complete Iraq Timetable Legislation

By Dan Robinson
Washington
23 April 2007

President Bush is hardening his opposition to any timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, and faces showdown with opposition Democrats over funding for the war. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill, where House and Senate lawmakers prepared to meet to hammer out military funding legislation that will contain just such a timetable.

President Bush again traded verbal barbs with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who with House Democrats remains determined to send the president a war funding bill with target dates for pulling most troops out of Iraq.

In a Washington speech, Senator Reid, who was sharply criticized for a recent remark calling the war in Iraq lost, reiterated Democrat's determination. "The phased redeployment of our troops no later than October first of this year, with a goal of removing all combat forces by April 1, 2008, except for those carrying out the limited missions I just mentioned," he said.

By setting only a goal of withdrawal, the bill Congress will send to the president adopts softer language than a House-passed measure that proposed a mandatory troop pullout by October of 2008.

The democratic plan would largely limit U.S. troops to training Iraqi security forces, protecting remaining U.S. forces, and conducting targeted counter-terrorism operations.

Before Senator Reid spoke, President Bush met at the White House with the commander of the Iraq war, General David Petraeus, and repeated his contention that setting a withdrawal timetable would be disastrous for both nations. "An artificial timetable of withdrawal would say to an enemy, 'just wait them out.' It would say to the Iraqis, 'do not do hard things necessary to achieve our objectives,' and it would be discouraging for our troops," he said.

The president acknowledged that Iraq continues to be plagued by violence, including what he termed "horrific bombings, but asserts that the ongoing build-up of U.S. forces is showing some signs of progress.

"These troops are all aimed at helping this Iraqi government find the breathing space necessary to do what the people want them to do, and that is to reconcile and move forward with a government of, and by and for the Iraqi people," he said.

Senator Reid said the president is wrong, and reserved some of his sharpest criticism for the Iraqi government. "Despite our surge in troops, and spending, they have failed to take meaningful steps toward achieving them [benchmarks for progress]. Militias have not disbanded and continue to cause terror and now the Iraqi government, once the Bush administration's greatest pride, stands on the brink of chaos," he said.

House and Senate lawmakers are hammering out final legislation to fund military operations in Iraq as well as Afghanistan.

But although the final bill Congress sends to the White House is likely to adopt softer language contained in a Senate-passed measure, the president is standing firm on his veto threat.

A veto, which Democrats lack the support to over-ride, would send the legislation back to Congress where it would have to be re-worked to avoid another veto, allow a presidential signature, and gets funds moving to the military.