Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, July 13, 2007
(07-13) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Facing rock-bottom poll numbers and the judgment of history, President Bush has little to lose politically in using the last 18 months of his presidency to try to prove critics of his war policy wrong. The president followed that path Thursday, finding promise in a "young democracy" in Iraq despite descriptions by his own administration of a deeply fractured society.
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Democrats have expressed rising outrage and astonishment at what they call Bush's refusal to face reality and have said the only thing likely to change between now and mid-September is that more American troops will die in a war that is in its fifth year.
"The president has his head in the sand," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. "The Iraqis have not met a single of the 18 benchmarks we laid out, and yet this president has the audacity to ask for more patience while our troops are getting killed every day policing a civil war."
Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, defeated by Bush in 2004, said the Iraqi government has shown no indication it can unify the country.
"No general, no administration official has come to us ... in our secret briefings and said this is a winning strategy," Kerry said. "What we have is a hope, a wing and a prayer that somehow these Iraqis are going to come together and make some decisions."
Republicans have so far largely stuck with Bush on major votes and many defend the war despite its cost of more than 3,600 American lives and $500 billion. Democrats remain four votes short of the 60 senators needed to break the procedural hurdles in the Senate and gain approval of legislation setting dates to withdraw American forces from Iraq.
moreBut vote to leave isn't veto-proofRenee Schoof and Margaret Talev
McClatchy
July 13, 2007
WASHINGTON – Hours after President Bush appealed for more time for his Iraq plan to work, the House of Representatives voted 223-201 Thursday for a dramatic change of course – a troop withdrawal to start in four months and a shift in the mission by next year mainly to fight against international terrorists.
Both the House vote and a similar one planned in the Senate next week add pressure on Republicans facing widespread frustration with the war. Most Republicans say they won't vote to force Bush to withdraw troops on a timetable and that they'll wait for a mid-September report to decide whether to change course.
House Democrats said that with casualties in Iraq high and worldwide terrorism threats growing, there was no reason to hold back, and they pressured Republicans to reject the president's strategy now. They were 67 votes short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override a presidential veto, however.
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"The report in September, I guarantee my colleagues, will reflect exactly what we see today. The civil war will be raging on. There will be no real political progress," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a speech in the Senate.
"Each member really has to ask themselves in these next days, what is our responsibility to our soldiers and to our country? We hear people in cloakrooms privately saying it's wrong. But it doesn't translate into votes. How are you going to feel in September if you finally wind up saying, 'Well I think the policy is broken now?' "
more John Kerry: New Iraq Policy Can’t Wait Until September
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