Senate measure calling for Iraq withdrawal fails

[OzmO]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/15/congress.iraq.ap/index.html

any thoughts?

[ieffinhatecardio]

I can't imagine the Dems thought this was going to pass, nevermind getting the 60 necessary votes they didn't even get the majority of votes, losing 50-48 against. Plus Bush was going to Veto this anyway.

I don't know how we can leave Iraq anytime in the near future. There is way too much instability and there is no real power base outside of our soldiers. Who will keep the peace if we leave? How will the "Government" run without us?

There is just no way around the fact that we're there for the foreseeable future.

[G o a t b o y]

I can't imagine the Dems thought this was going to pass

They didn't.  It was a pre-election political strategy to force people on the record voting one way or the other.

[240 is Back]

They didn't.  It was a pre-election political strategy to force people on the record voting one way or the other.

yep yep.  liiiiiiiiiiiight weight.

[ribonucleic]

If the Democrats were serious about ending the war [and obviously they're not], they would simply filibuster any military appropriations bill that didn't fund an immediate troop withdrawal. They would need only 40 votes to sustain the filibuster - and there would be nothing for Bush to veto.

I'm sure the Republicans would then start braying about "the nuclear option" again. [The Senate rules one - not the "make Tehran radioactive" one  ] And who would prevail in that contest seems uncertain.

But that's what a serious anti-war position would look like.

[ieffinhatecardio]

They didn't.  It was a pre-election political strategy to force people on the record voting one way or the other.

This paragraph from the article is interesting. Barbara Lee from California wants us out by the end of the year so she voted against. While in theory she's for a withdrawal on record she's against it. Someone might have wanted to explain to her the relevance of the vote.

In the House, only one committee Democrat, liberal Rep. Barbara Lee of California, voted against her party's plan, saying it did not go far enough. "I believe the American people sent a mandate to us to bring home our men and women before the end of the year," she said.

[OzmO]

Wow we learn more and more every day.