Posted on: Friday, June 17, 2005
Abercrombie joins push for Iraq withdrawal date
By Dennis Camire
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — U.S. troops would begin to withdraw from Iraq by Oct. 1, 2006, under a resolution Rep. Neil Abercrombie and five other House members introduced yesterday.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais • Associated Press Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said one key reason he offered the resolution was the deployment of Hawai'i National Guard and military reservists to Iraq. Some are serving their third stint.
"I don't see how anybody can argue that the military has not done everything that it's possible for them to do in a military sense," he said. "By keeping our troops in Iraq indefinitely, we're asking them to resolve political and social issues that need to be resolved by the Iraqis themselves."
Joining Abercrombie on the resolution were Reps. Walter Jones, R-N.C., Ron Paul, R-Texas, Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, Martin Meehan, D-Mass., and Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.
"After 1,700 deaths, over 12,000 wounded and $200 billion spent, we believe it is time to have this debate and discussion," said Jones, who voted for the war. He had also persuaded Capitol Hill cafeterias to change the name of their french fries to "Freedom Fries."
"We are giving the Iraqis every reasonable chance for a democracy, but at some time in the near future, the ultimate fate of Iraq will, and should, rest in the hands of the Iraqis," Jones said. "They cannot be forever dependent upon America as the primary defense forces in Iraq."
But Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. commanders in Iraq probably would not welcome an artificial deadline.
"If you look at it from the insurgents' perspective ... nothing would make them happier, I suppose, than to think that there is a deadline out there, there is a time and distance factor associated with it, and then ... they simply wait us out," Conway said.
Lawrence Di Rita, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said the Bush administration has talked about a timeline for withdrawal that includes the transfer of full control of the country to an elected Iraqi government and the development of Iraqi security forces.
"Those are the principal elements that our presence is geared to," Di Rita said. "I'm not sure anybody has sufficient know-ledge to pick the right deadline."
The Associated Press reported that the House is expected to give the Pentagon another $45 billion for wars next year.
While President Bush has not yet asked for more war funds, lawmakers included money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in a spending bill the House debated yesterday. A vote had been expected late yesterday but was postponed until Monday because of other business.
With no end in sight in Iraq and Afghanistan, additional war costs are certain and House lawmakers are reluctant to wait for the president's request.
The Senate also is considering adding billions for the wars in its version of the spending bill.
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has given the president $350 billion for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan and fighting terrorism worldwide. That total includes $82 billion that lawmakers approved in May; much of this money was for Iraq.
In the month since, polls have shown that the public increasingly is dissatisfied with the direction of the Iraq war.
An Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that only 41 percent of adults — a low-water mark — said they supported Bush's handling of the war. A Gallup poll reported that six in 10 Americans want the United States to withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq.
The measure — the first from a bipartisan group of lawmakers — would require President Bush to announce a plan for withdrawing troops by the end of the year and explain how it would be implemented.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., center, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, hand-delivers petitions to the White House as Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., left, talks to an unidentified White House aide, right. The petitions were signed by 105 members of Congress and more than 540,000 Americans, demanding that President Bush respond to the evidence of deceptions about the war in Iraq.
Abercrombie argued that the insurgency and the ethnic, religious or political conflicts in Iraq are exacerbated by U.S. troops' presence there. He added that the American public has become frustrated over the course of the war.
Neil Abercrombie
