US lawmakers reject immediate Iraq pullout (AP) Updated: 2005-11-19 15:39
The US House on Friday overwhelmingly rejected calls for an immediate troop
withdrawal from Iraq, a vote engineered by Republicans that was intended to
fail. Democrats derided the vote as a political stunt.
"Our troops have become the enemy. We need to change
direction in Iraq," said Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a Democratic hawk
whose call a day earlier for pulling out troops sparked a nasty, personal debate
over the war.
House Speaker
Dennis Hastert holds a press conference with other House GOP members to
summarize GOP efforts before Thanksgiving recess on Capitol Hill in
Washington, Friday, Nov. 18, 2005. [AP] |
The House voted 403-3 to reject a nonbinding resolution offered by the GOP
calling for the military to pull out of Iraq.
"We want to make sure that we support our troops that are fighting in Iraq
and Afghanistan. We will not retreat," Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said as
the Republican leadership pushed the issue to a vote over the protest of
Democrats.
Like most Democrats, Murtha voted against the measure. Murtha said it was not
the thoughtful approach he said he had suggested to bring the troops safely home
in six months.
It was the second time in less than a week that President Bush's Iraq policy
stirred heated debate in Congress. On Tuesday, the Senate defeated a Democratic
push for Bush to lay out a timetable for withdrawal. Instead, it adopted a
statement that 2006 should be a year of significant transition in Iraq.
"Congress in strong, bipartisan fashion rejected the call to cut and run,"
press secretary Scott McClellan, traveling with Bush in Asia, said a statement.
Earlier Friday, Bush had called an immediate troop withdrawal "a recipe for
disaster."
Murtha, a Marine veteran decorated for combat service in Vietnam, issued his
call for a troop withdrawal at a news conference on Thursday. In little more
than 24 hours, Hastert and Republicans decided to put the question to the House.
Republicans hoped to place Democrats in an unappealing position — either
supporting a withdrawal that critics said would be precipitous or opposing it
and angering voters who want an end to the conflict. They also hoped the vote
could restore GOP momentum on an issue — the war — that has seen plummeting
public support in recent weeks.
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