Washington – Adding troops in Iraq won’t make America safer and won’t stabilize the Middle East, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday as she launched debate on a legislative rebuke of President Bush’s latest war plan.
For nearly 12 hours, dozens of House members debated the merits of a nonbinding resolution expressing disapproval of the troop increase. They spoke in sweeping terms, calling it historic and based in their most solemn duty. They cited the words of Abraham Lincoln and the actions of Winston Churchill.
“We are engaged in a global war now – a war for our very way of life,” said GOP Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. “Every drop of blood that has been spilt in defense of freedom and liberty – from the American Revolution to this very moment – is for nothing if we are unwilling to stand against this threat.”
Debate is scheduled for three days, with a vote on the nonbinding resolution planned for Friday. It is expected to pass.
Democratic leaders said they expected no more than one or two members of their rank and file to oppose the resolution. Republicans said they expected at least two dozen GOP lawmakers to swing behind the measure, suggesting that it would command up to 260 votes in the 435-member House, according to The Associated Press.
In the Colorado delegation, Democratic Reps. John Salazar of Manassa, Mark Udall of Eldorado Springs, Diana DeGette of Denver and Ed Perl mutter of Golden support the resolution.
Republican Reps. Marilyn Musgrave of Fort Morgan and Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs plan to vote against it.
Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Littleton has not decided how he will vote.
“My first priority is to do what is right for the troops, and this resolution sends the wrong message,” Musgrave said.
“Americans elected a new majority in Congress to act as a check and balance,” and not a “rubber stamp of the president’s policies,” Perlmutter said, adding that troops should be out of Iraq by spring of 2008.
None of Colorado’s lawmakers debated Tuesday. Some are expected to do so today and some Thursday.
Efforts to pass a similar resolution in the Senate stalled last week. Passage in the House, Pelosi said, “will take our country in a new direction on Iraq. A vote of disapproval will set the stage for additional Iraq legislation.”
House Republicans opposing the resolution called it the first step toward withdrawing funding for the war effort.
Some lawmakers, in fact, called for that step. Rep. John Con yers Jr., D-Mich., a Korean War veteran, repeated his appeal to force the war’s end by using Congress’ ability to eliminate funding for it.
“I do not want to see one more promising life extinguished on the altar of this administration’s arrogance,” Conyers said.
House members favoring the resolution used Tuesday’s debate to criticize Bush’s handling of the Iraq war.
“We are here because of a series of irretrievable strategic mistakes,” said Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
But Republican Peter King argued that mistakes are made in wars. “That’s true in almost every war in which America has been engaged,” King said.
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said that prior to the start of World War II, few supported Winston Churchill’s call to take a stand against Hitler.
“As a result of nobody listening,” Burton said, “62 million people died.”
Staff writer Anne Mulkern can be reached at 202-662-8907 or amulkern@denverpost.com.
