Thursday 15 March 2007

Iraq debate moving forward... slowly

Around a month ago, the House of Representatives finally passed a long-standing nonbinding resolution condemning Bush's Iraq policy. This seemed like a step in the right direction after there had been virtually no action — even symbolic, like with the nonbinding resolution — really taken on Iraq policy debate in Congress since the Democrats came into power at the beginning of 2007.

The day after, however, the Senate blocked debate on the motion.

Washington Post (again):

After weeks of delay, Democratic leaders yesterday managed to bring to the Senate floor for the first time a binding resolution that would bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. But Republicans remained confident that they could kill the proposal, and the White House threatened a veto, raising constitutional concerns.

Democrats want the new proposal to supersede the 2002 resolution that authorized the Iraq invasion. It would restrict troop movements and set March 31, 2008, as a target date for bringing the troops home.

Republicans had blocked previous efforts on new war resolutions, using parliamentary maneuvers. But they allowed the latest version to inch forward, confident that they could still kill the proposal. A final resolution could come later this week, and Democrats acknowledged that it is unlikely to become law. Still, war opponents urged support for the resolution, declaring that the public no longer wants U.S. troops in Iraq and that last November's elections showed that voters wanted Democrats to end the conflict.


The White House veto is of major concern on the unlikely chance this resolution does pass. At least this one is binding though.

Amazing that even most debate in Congress on Iraq policy has been suppressed. And yet pointless statements and grandstanding flies by fine, not to mention symbolic maneuvers purely for personal political gain and, as always, pork-berral spending motions.

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