House Votes to Ensure Troops' Home Time

[cal04]

The House voted Thursday to give U.S. troops guaranteed time at home between deployments to Iraq, the latest but assuredly not the last challenge to President Bush from Democrats determined to end an unpopular war.

Bush threatened to veto the measure, which passed on a vote of 229-194. Six Republicans broke ranks to support it and three more voted "present" rather than take a firm position.

House Democrats staged the vote as Defense Secretary Robert Gates became the latest administration official to acknowledge miscalculations about Iraq and a national public opinion poll said support for a troop withdrawal exceeds 60 percent.

En route home from the Middle East, Gates acknowledged the slow pace of political reconciliation among Iraqi leaders. "In some ways we probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together," Gates said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_32

[mmonk]

1. Well if they aren't going to end it, may as well give them

time with their families.

[pepperbear]

2. "House Democrats staged the vote" I hate to say it, but "staged" sounds about right

it's another situation where they know they don't have the votes to override a veto, but they're sure doing there best anyway!

Sorry, folks, not loving this compliance thing right now.

[Phredicles]

3. This seems compassionate and sensible. May we assume it faces

a filibuster and/or veto?