Ending all assumptions and hypothesis, an almost evenly divided House of Representatives passed a spending bill on Friday giving a firm time limit to Bush administration for bringing the US troops back from Iraq.
The House voted 218-212 in favor of the $124 billion spending bill that also includes the deadline of August 31, 2008 for the withdrawal of most American forces in Iraq.
The interesting and most crucial part of the bill is that the President will have to confirm development in Iraq on both July 1 and October 1, and in case the Iraqi authorities or government fails to make any mark, the US troop extraction would start automatically for total withdrawal within a 6 month deadline.
Challenging the administration’s policy in the House is perhaps one of the valiant efforts by the Congress in the recent past and a pioneering victory that will boost up the morale of the Democrats in a classic power struggle.
This bill is a major success for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well, for she skillfully managed to secure enough votes from members and mounted the pressure on the administration to draft a timetable for troop removal and despite the growing political pressure to pass the bill it takes a lot to regroup members to vote against extra funding for a war. Pelosi, ahead of the vote, said,
Congress has acted on the concerns of the American people. The American people have lost faith in the president’s conduct of this war. The American people see the reality of this war — the president does not.
On the other, President Bush slammed the Democrats over Iraqi timetable and charged them with mounting a political theater that will interrupt the delivery of assets to the troops combating in Iraq. He asserted,
A narrow majority in the House of Representatives abdicated its responsibility by passing a war spending bill that has no chance of becoming law and brings us no closer to getting the troops the resources they need to do their job. These Democrats believe that the longer they can delay funding for our troops, the more likely they are to force me to accept restrictions on our commanders, an artificial timetable for withdrawal and their pet spending projects. This is not going to happen.
In a statement president Bush pledged to veto the bill that he condemned as irresponsible and reckless.
As I have made clear for weeks, I will veto it if it comes to my desk. And because the vote in the House was so close, it is clear that my veto would be sustained.
Democrats may have won the Iraq pullout bill, sent a signal to the American people is that they want the war ended far ahead of presidential elections and defied the ‘war against terror’, the spending bill would be remembered as a losing bill for America, as Democrats have indicated their disinterest in the war to the opponents they have been fighting against for a long period and also undermined the US foreign policy.
