Joe Hack

The United States House of Representatives has voted in favour of pulling most combat troops out of Iraq by April next year. The new legislation calls for the Pentagon to begin withdrawing combat troops within four months and the vote comes despite President George W Bush’s threat to veto any timetable. Unfortunately, its not quite as simple as that. Both the House and the Senate must pass separate legislation and then reconcile their two versions for a measure to be passed to the president. Correspondents say the House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats, is hoping to pressure the Senate to approve a similar timeline.

This will be the third time this year the elected representatives of the American people have voted in favour of an end to US military involvement in Iraq. One previous legislative push was vetoed by Mr Bush, while a second failed when the Senate voted twice against imposing a withdrawal timetable. This latest watered-down attempt would allow some US forces to stay in Iraq to train the Iraqi army and carry out counter-terrorism operations. Some commentators argue this is simply leaves the way open for the US to continue attempting to control Iraq and would certainly not satisfy the fundamental criticism in the middle-east and ellsewhere that America should simply not be in Iraq at all.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat said .. “It is time for the president to listen to the American people and do what is necessary to protect this nation. That means admitting his Iraq policy has failed, working with the Democrats and Republicans in Congress on crafting a new way forward in Iraq and refocusing our collective efforts on defeating al-Qaeda.”

Earlier, President Bush presented an interim report on Iraq which said there had been only limited military and political progress following his decision to send troop reinforcements earlier this year. In fact even by the extremely modest ‘benchmark’ tests that the government had set itself (and you don’t set tests for yourself that you think you’ll fail) the ’surge’ strategy was currenty not succeeding as planned. Whoops ! However Mr Bush still rejected calls for a withdrawal of US forces, saying it would be disastrous. Well, it would certainly be disastrous for his personal pride, but is that the single over-riding factor that should determine American foreign policy ? At the moment, it seems like it is.

The action of the House of Representatives in passing new ‘troops out’ legislation was predictable. After all, they’re there on a mandate from the people to sort out an end to the bloody fiasco of Iraq. Bushs reaction to their legislation, that of stubborn denial and arrogance, was equally predictable. He’s a one-trick pony. What will be interesting now though is to see the reaction of wavering Republicans who could determine whether or not Congress will try to force the president’s hand. Three Republicans in the Senate have already broken ranks with the president and called for a phased troop withdrawal. Several others have signed on as supporters of a bipartisan bill to implement a series of changes recommended last December by the Iraqi Study Group. The Democrats will need more support from the Republicans if they are to push the legislation through in a final Senate vote expected next week.

Lets all hope that they can put partisan politics behind them and do the right thing. America should never have invaded Iraq. It was done on the basis of lies as we all now know. It has resulted in over 600,000 Iraqi deaths and a further 4 million refugees. It has made the previously terrorist-free Iraq into a terrorist playground. It has de-stabilised the middle-east and made the world, by any objective measure, a more dangerous place. It has spawned torture (Abu Ghraib) and atrocity (Haditha) scandals that have dragged the name of America through the mud internationally. It is Americas worst foreign policy disaster since Vietnam and its consequences may yet be far worse. Politicians assertions that we must ‘finish the job’ or that we ‘owe it to the Iraqui people’ are just so much self-serving bullshit designed to perpetuate Americas presence there for reasons that have nothing to do with the welfare of the Iraqis. The truth is America has no business whatsoever in Iraq and it needs to get out right now. Not one more American soldier should have to die over Bushs folly.

Remember this ? Another time and another world, but even more relevant today.

“Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’ ” (Dylan)

Yeah, the Times Are a’ Changin ‘. We’re all looking hard at you republican senators and congressmen now. Its your chance to do the decent thing. No more bullshit. Are you going to represent the will of the people and help get the troops, all US troops, out of Iraq ? Or are you going to bury your head in the sand ? We’re all watching you and we’ll remember.

Tags:Bush Iraq Political Rants politics surge troops War war on terrorBush, Iraq, Political Rants, politics, surge, troops, War, war on terror

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!