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Senate to vote on Iraq pullout: Cut and Run v. Cut and Jog
Other Republicans characterized the difference between the two plans as "cut and run" or "cut and jog," saying both will only alert the insurgents to the United States game plan. "Armchair generals in Washington are advocating retreat," said Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Some senators decried the partisan bickering. "My soul cries out for something more dignified," said Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat. His fellow Nebraskan, Republican Chuck Hagel, agreed. The war is the "defining issue on which Congress will be judged," he said. "It should be taken more seriously. It should not be held hostage by political agendas. Our men and women fighting and dying deserve better." Senate Rejects Calls on Iraq Troop Pullout The GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday rejected Democratic calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by years' end, as the two parties sought to define their election-year positions on a war that has grown increasingly unpopular. "Withdrawal is not an option. Surrender is not a solution," declared Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who characterized Democrats as defeatists wanting to abandon Iraq before the mission is complete. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, in turn, portrayed Republican leaders as blindly following President Bush's "failed" stay-the-course strategy. "It is long past time to change course in Iraq and start to end the president's open-ended commitment," he said. In an 86-13 vote, the Senate turned back a proposal from some Democrats that would require the administration to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by July 1, 2007, with redeployments beginning this year. No Republicans voted in favor of the plan. Minutes later, the Senate rejected by 60-39 the proposal more popular with Democrats, a nonbinding resolution that would call for the administration to begin withdrawing troops, but with no timetable for the war's end. That vote was mostly along party lines. Posted by: KBK 2006-06-22 |
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