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Analysis: Lengthening Political Shadows of Iraq

Council on Foreign Relations

May 18, 2007
Author: Robert McMahon

On the surface, the presidential candidates’ rhetoric on Iraq seems to be a natural extension of the partisan dispute that has buffeted a war-funding bill in Congress this year. The four senator-candidates in the Democratic Party even voted for a recent measure aimed at cutting off funding for the war by next March, although it was doomed for failure (ConnPost). On the Republican side, frontrunners Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney used the start of their last debate to reinforce support for the military campaign in Iraq as essential to U.S. security.

But a closer look at the Iraq debate shows the prospect for fissures within both parties, as this new Backgrounder explains. For example, on the May 16 vote in the Senate to halt war funding, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) mixed signals about whether or not she would actually support cutting off funding highlighted the sensitivity of the issue for a prospective Democratic commander-in-chief: Get out or support the troops? (AP)

Equally noteworthy, a separate Senate vote that same day saw a majority of Republicans vote for the first time to restrict aid to the Iraqi government if they didn’t meet certain benchmarks. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), although irked by the funding impasse, said there is bipartisan agreement “that we must hold the Iraqi government accountable (The Hill blog) to a political process that allows for reconciliation.”

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

Copyright 2007 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.