Troops pressure Congress to back pullout from Iraq

January 17, 2007

BY RENEE SCHOOF

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — Pressure on Congress intensified Tuesday to stop President George W. Bush’s plan to increase troops in Iraq, as about 1,000 active-duty soldiers and Marines urged lawmakers to support a quick withdrawal and antiwar groups planned to rally state legislatures.

Although most Democrats and some Republicans oppose Bush’s 21,500-troop increase, Congress isn’t moving very fast to try to stop or alter the plan. Democratic leaders in both chambers want their first step to be a resolution calling on lawmakers to go on record as being for or against Bush’s Iraq plan.

Democrats say they have a solid Senate majority against the plan, including perhaps a dozen Republicans, so the resolution is effectively a symbolic vote of no confidence in Bush’s war plan. Only after that vote will they look at ways to use Congress’ power over funding.

The Senate resolution is to be introduced today, but it was unlikely a vote would occur before Bush gives his State of the Union address Tuesday.

House leaders plan to let the Senate go first, then vote on a similar resolution. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the appropriations defense subcommittee, planned to start hearings today about how Congress might use the threat of spending cutoffs to demand changes in policy, but they’ll be closed so lawmakers can consider classified information.

Also Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee examined the plight of Iraqi refugees. About 1.7 million Iraqis have been driven from their homes, and hundreds of thousands have become refugees in Jordan, Syria and elsewhere.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who chairs a subcommittee on immigration and refugees, called for more humanitarian aid for displaced Iraqis and refuge for those who risked their lives to work for Americans in Iraq. Last year, the United States admitted 202 Iraqi refugees, he said.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 active-duty servicemen and women who oppose the war sent an "appeal for redress" to Congress. Although they’re duty-bound to carry out the president’s orders, they have a legal right to use such means to express their views.

The statement, carried on the Web site AppealforappealforRredress.org, was signed by 1,080 troops as of Tuesday afternoon, the site claimed.

It urged Congress to support "the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq," adding, "staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price."

"Despite our best efforts, Iraq fell further into chaos," Marine Sgt. Liam Madden, said at a news conference on the steps of a House office building.

Madden said he believed the war "benefits neither the United States nor Iraq, and especially not the American military."

"Our brothers are dying, and politicians are squabbling," he said. "If you are funding a war that puts them in harm’s way, you are not supporting them."

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