Square one for Democrats on Iraq
Friday, 16 Nov 2007 20:59
Democrat bill tying funding to withdrawal from Iraq blocked by Republicans in US senate
A Democrat attempt to tie $50 billion (£24 billion) worth of funding to a withdrawal of troops from Iraq has been blocked by Republicans in the Senate.
The Iraq war bill was defeated 53-45, seven short of the votes it needed to pass. Earlier this week it was passed comfortably in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.
George Bush has said he needs $196 billion (£96 billion) for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today's defeated bill stipulated that all American troops be withdrawn from Iraq by December 15th 2008, which goes against US commanders' assertion that the date of withdrawal should be dependent upon conditions on the ground.
In presenting the bill, Democrats had pointed to 2007 being the deadliest for American soldiers in Iraq so far.
"Our troops continue to fight and die valiantly," said Senate majority leader Harry Reid. "And our treasury continues to be depleted rapidly for a peace that we seem far more interested in achieving than Iraq's own political leaders."
But Republican senators argued that violence levels had been stabilised by the army's surge strategy of sending 300,000 extra troops to Baghdad.
"It's telling our soldiers, you're losers, when they're winners," South Carolina's Lindsey Graham said of the bill.
"So we're going to defeat it, now and forever."