WASHINGTON – President Bush warned Tuesday that some U.S. soldiers might have to stay longer in Iraq if Congress does not quickly deliver a war-spending bill that he can sign, and he lashed out at Democratic leaders as “irresponsible” and accused them of making the war “a political dance.”
With Congress in its spring recess, the president slammed the Democrats on a war-funding bill that he pledges to veto because it includes timelines for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It was the latest salvo in an escalating battle as both sides gird for a standoff that could echo the 1995 shutdown of the federal government.
Bush’s offensive followed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s warning that he will press for a cutoff of all war funding in March 2008 if the president rejects congressional timelines for withdrawal. The president also criticized actions by another top Democrat, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who arrived Tuesday in Damascus for her own freelance diplomatic mission to Syria – a nation that Bush has refused to engage directly, despite the Iraq Study Group’s call for a stronger diplomatic initiative in the Mideast.
Bush warned during a Rose Garden news conference that a prolonged standoff over the war-spending bill could jeopardize the delivery of equipment to troops on the front line and delay the training of new soldiers, in turn forcing troops already deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan to serve longer stints there.
“In a time of war, it’s irresponsible for the Democrat leadership in … Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds,” said Bush, counting his 57th day since delivering a war-spending request to Congress.
Yet, while calling on Congress to “come off their vacation” and quickly tackle “emergency” war needs, the president was heading to his Texas ranch today for a spring retreat of his own through Easter Sunday.
Democrats remain unbowed by Bush’s criticism. They plan to send the president a supplemental spending bill to fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan once they resolve differences between the House and the Senate, and they expect a veto over the withdrawal timelines.
Their attempt to override the veto is expected to fail, and once that happens, Reid, D-Nev., plans to introduce legislation cutting off funding for the war altogether after March 31, 2008. Although that appears destined to fail, Democrats say they want to keep the pressure on Republicans to change course in Iraq.
The Democrats, betting that the American public is on their side in an unpopular war, are casting Bush as the one delaying needed funding for troops already in the field by refusing to negotiate over House and Senate funding bills that set differing conditions and timelines for combat troop withdrawals – next March in the Senate’s version, September 2008 in the House’s.
“Democrats will send President Bush a bill that gives our troops the resources they need and a strategy in Iraq worthy of their sacrifices,” Reid said. “If the president vetoes this bill, he will have delayed funding for troops and kept in place his strategy for failure.”
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said, “The president says he supports our troops, yet he wants to keep them in the middle of an Iraqi civil war indefinitely.”
House Democrats, acknowledging they do not have the votes to override Bush’s veto, also promised that defeat of the war-spending measure won’t end the debate.
The president, Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials are stepping up their warnings that Democrats run the risk of harming Americans at war by attaching timetables to war-spending bills.
With both sides hardening their positions, the outcome of this struggle over a $120-billion-plus war-spending bill could either give the Bush presidency a needed boost or continue Bush’s decline in the polls. With about one in three Americans voicing approval for the job Bush is performing, nearly two-thirds support the timelines for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq that Senate and House leaders are pressing, opinion polls show.
“Democrat leaders in Congress,” Bush said, “seem more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than providing our troops what they need to fight the battles in Iraq.” He warned that delayed passage of a bill that he can sign will force the Defense Department to start drawing money from other needed areas this month.
If the standoff runs into May, the president said, the Army will have to consider suspending or “freezing” work at depots, meaning that equipment cannot be repaired, and also delaying training of active-duty forces, resulting in those already deployed serving longer stints.
“Congress’ failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines, and others could see their loved ones headed back to the war sooner than they need to,” Bush said. “That is unacceptable to me, and I believe it is unacceptable to the American people.”
