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Home Front: Politix
Reed-Levin troop-pullout plan fails in U.S. Senate
2007-09-22
Sen. Jack ReedÂ’s measure to set a deadline for troop withdrawals from Iraq failed to win a majority yesterday, capping a week of defeats for antiwar forces in the Senate and dimming Democratic hopes of imposing a strategic shift on President Bush.

On a 47-to-47 vote, the Senate blocked an amendment by Reed and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., that would pull most American troops out of Iraq within nine months. The proposal lost ground on both sides of the aisle since it won 52 votes in its last Senate floor test about two months ago.

Reed said the defeat of his troop-withdrawal plan showed that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, “has managed to buy some time” for Mr. Bush to continue his strategy. “I don’t think he made a huge impression on the public at large,” Reed said of Petraeus, who last week warned Congress against an early reversal of the surge of U.S. troops that the Army general credited with significant security gains in Iraq this year.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the purpose of the surge is “to have the Iraqi military take over more and more of the responsibilities” as U.S. troops begin to leave. “You have to establish the military security environment in order for the political process of move forward” in Iraq, McCain said.

Reed, a graduate of West Point, has long maintained that the surge cannot continue beyond next spring because maintaining it would disrupt the PentagonÂ’s system of troop rotations.
Reed said that Petraeus and Mr. Bush have effectively bowed to Democratic pressure by announcing plans for some troop reductions later this year. The president last week said he would reduce U.S. forces to roughly the level — about 130,000 troops — where they stood early this year when he ordered a surge of new troops to reduce violence, particularly in Baghdad. Reed, a graduate of West Point, has long maintained that the surge cannot continue beyond next spring because maintaining it would disrupt the Pentagon’s system of troop rotations.

Still, this weekÂ’s Senate votes on Iraq were a letdown for Democrats, who only last month appeared to have made inroads in Republican support for Mr. BushÂ’s policy.

Only three Republicans — Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine — supported the measure. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who voted for Levin-Reed in July, criticized Democratic leadership for refusing to seek compromise language to draw GOP moderates.

Three Democrats also defected: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and David Pryor of Arkansas, both moderates, and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, a liberal candidate for president, who made clear that he does not think the Levin-Reed measure goes far enough.

Independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman voted against the Levin-Reed measure, as he has in the past.
Posted by:Fred

#1  So two years from now, when Iraq is as peaceful as Egypt, the Dems will take credit for their unrelenting pressure to end the war.

I mean, without them, we'd just be fighting the war for practice. And to irritate the lefties.
Posted by: Bobby   2007-09-22 14:28  

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