Washington – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the war in Iraq is “lost,” triggering an angry backlash by Republicans, who said the top Democrat had turned his back on the troops.
The bleak assessment – the most pointed yet from Reid – came as the House voted 215-199 to uphold legislation ordering troops out of Iraq next year.
Reid said he told President Bush on Wednesday he thought the war could not be won through military force, although he said the U.S. could still pursue political, economic and diplomatic means to bring peace to Iraq.
“I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and – you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows – (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday,” said Reid of Nevada.
Republicans pounced on the comment as evidence, they said, that Democrats do not support the troops.
The exchange came before the House voted to endorse legislation it passed last month that would fund the war in Iraq but require combat missions to end by September 2008. The Senate passed similar, less-sweeping legislation that would set a nonbinding goal of bringing combat troops home by March 31, 2008.
Mostly along party lines
The House voted mostly along party lines to insist congressional negotiators trying to reconcile the House and Senate bills retain the firm timetable. One Republican – Rep. Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland – sided with 214 Democrats in voting in favor of the 2008 deadline. Nine Democrats broke ranks and voted alongside 190 Republicans against setting a timetable.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on an unannounced trip to Iraq, delivered a sharp message to the country’s political leaders Thursday: The U.S. military’s commitment to the war is not open-ended.
“The clock is ticking,” Gates told reporters, saying he will warn Iraqi officials that they must move faster on political reconciliation. “I know it’s difficult, and clearly the attack on the council of representatives has made people nervous, but I think that it’s very important that they bend every effort to getting this legislation done as quickly as possible.”
Gates, traveling to Iraq for the third time in four months, took a decidedly stronger tone this time, reflecting U.S. frustration and the political tumult in Washington.
