Democrats Demand Retreat by Fall 2008
In a direct challenge to President Bush, House Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of next year.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the deadline would be added to legislation providing nearly $100 billion the Bush administration has requested for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She told reporters the measure would mark the first time the new Democratic-controlled Congress has established a "date certain" for the end of U.S. combat in the four-year-old war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,100 U.S. troops.
The White House had no immediate reaction, although Bush has repeatedly rejected talk of establishing a deadline for troop withdrawals.
Within an hour of Pelosi's news conference, House Republican Leader John Boehner attacked the measure. He said Democrats were proposing legislation that amounted to "establishing and telegraphing to our enemy a timetable" that would result in failure of the U.S. military mission in Iraq.
"Gen. (David) Petraeus should be the one making the decisions on what happens on the ground in Iraq, not Nancy Pelosi or John Murtha," the Ohio Republican added. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has been heavily involved in crafting legislation designed to end U.S., participation in the war.
It's unbelievable that these people think they control the military. The last thing this country needs is several hundred 'Commander's-in-chief'. They have shown though the past few months they have no idea what they're doing. It took about 10 years to stabilize Germany after WWII. We are now in year 5 of the Iraq part of the War on Terror. All indications from those 'knowledgeable' say we are well ahead of schedule.
