Washington – President Bush on Monday continued to urge Democrats to promptly pass a $100 billion war-funding bill that does not set a timetable for troop withdrawals from Iraq, warning that the safety of the American homeland is at stake.
“One of the lessons of September the 11th is what happens overseas matters to the security of the United States of America, and we must not forget that lesson,” Bush told a gathering of military families at the White House. “The consequences of failure would be death and destruction in the Middle East and here in America. To protect our citizens at home, we must defeat the terrorists.”
Bush also served notice that at a meeting Wednesday with congressional leaders he will not negotiate with Democrats who are demanding that the funding bill set a timetable to wind down American involvement in the war, which has claimed the lives of almost 3,300 U.S. service members.
“Congress needs to put partisanship on hold, needs to get rid of all the politics right now, and send me an emergency war- spending bill that I can sign, that gets our troops the support they need and gives our commanders the flexibility they need to complete this mission,” Bush said.
His comments mark the latest attempt by the Bush administration to ramp up pressure on the Democratic-controlled Congress to pass a bill with no timetable. Over the weekend, Vice President Dick Cheney predicted that Congress will approve funding for the Iraq war with no strings attached, although not until after a veto showdown with Bush.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged Monday to send Bush a bill with timetables, calling the president’s recent troop increase in Baghdad a failure.
“If you look at strictly numbers – number of Iraqis being killed, number of bombs being detonated, number of American soldiers being killed, averaging a little more than three a day now – that should say it all: The surge hasn’t worked,” Reid said at a news conference.
