Rhino
02-05-2007, 11:09 AM
Iraq Resolution Vote a Measure of Senate Confidence in Bush
Monday, February 05, 2007
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans tried to rally support Monday against a non-binding resolution that if passed would amount to a no-confidence vote on President Bush's Iraq 'surge' plan.
The resolution declares that the Senate disagrees with the president's plan and lays out alternatives such as moving troops away from the sectarian violence and closer to the Iraq border to provide territorial integrity.
The measure also urges more regional diplomacy, which Democrats and some Republicans say is key to ending the sectarian violence. In an effort to attract more GOP support, it includes a provision specifically pledging to protect money for troops in combat.
"We have American troops" there, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "The question is, do we have to put more?"
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain, slammed the resolution and its supporters as wrong and intellectually dishonest.
"I hope they keep in mind that this is fundamentally a vote of no confidence in the people that we are sending on this mission in harm's way. We are telling them, 'we support you but we believe your mission will fail. We don't believe what you're doing,' " McCain said.
"I don't think it's appropriate to say that you disapprove of a mission and you don't want to fund it and you don't want it to go, but yet you don't take the action necessary to prevent it," he added.
Asked about McCain's position, Reed said it is "entirely wrong."
"It's our obligation to try to create a policy that will protect the United States as well as those forces who must implement that policy," Reed told FOX News.....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250214,00.html
Monday, February 05, 2007
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans tried to rally support Monday against a non-binding resolution that if passed would amount to a no-confidence vote on President Bush's Iraq 'surge' plan.
The resolution declares that the Senate disagrees with the president's plan and lays out alternatives such as moving troops away from the sectarian violence and closer to the Iraq border to provide territorial integrity.
The measure also urges more regional diplomacy, which Democrats and some Republicans say is key to ending the sectarian violence. In an effort to attract more GOP support, it includes a provision specifically pledging to protect money for troops in combat.
"We have American troops" there, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "The question is, do we have to put more?"
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain, slammed the resolution and its supporters as wrong and intellectually dishonest.
"I hope they keep in mind that this is fundamentally a vote of no confidence in the people that we are sending on this mission in harm's way. We are telling them, 'we support you but we believe your mission will fail. We don't believe what you're doing,' " McCain said.
"I don't think it's appropriate to say that you disapprove of a mission and you don't want to fund it and you don't want it to go, but yet you don't take the action necessary to prevent it," he added.
Asked about McCain's position, Reed said it is "entirely wrong."
"It's our obligation to try to create a policy that will protect the United States as well as those forces who must implement that policy," Reed told FOX News.....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250214,00.html