Washington – The House will begin debate today on a simple, tightly worded resolution opposing the deployment of additional combat troops to Iraq, even as Democratic leaders move forward on binding language that would curtail those deployments and begin to bring troops home.
The brief Democratic resolution will frame three days of debate on the war, culminating in an expected vote Friday to put the House on record against President Bush’s decision to deploy more than 20,000 additional U.S. combat troops to Iraq. The resolution affirms Congress’ support for “the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq” before breaking with the president’s new strategy.
“We will vote on a straightforward proposition: Do you support the president’s plan or oppose it?” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “That vote will herald whether the House understands the message the American people are sending about the policies used to implement this war: They have not worked, they will not work, and they must be changed.”
Waiting in the wings is binding legislation that would fully fund Bush’s $100 billion request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but add four conditions: Soldiers and Marines could only be deployed to Iraq after being certified as fully trained and equipped; National Guardsmen and reservists could be subject to no more than two deployments, or roughly 12 months of combat duty; the administration could use none of the money for permanent bases in Iraq; and additional funding for the National Guard and Reserve must be spent to retool operations at home, such as emergency response.
“It’s only the bark,” Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., said of this week’s resolution. “The real bite comes with the spending bill.”
Text of the resolution
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that – (1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and (2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.
