Saturday, September 22, 2007

Washington and Iraq

On Friday, the Senate blacked legislation that would have ordered most U.S. troops home from Iraq in nine months. This concluded a losing week for Democrats who failed to push through any anti-war proposal. The vote was 47-47 which fell 13 votes short of the 60 voted that were needed to formally close this debate. Democrats are understandably upset about this. Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich), who sponsored the bill, said, “We’re going to continue to lose lives and squander resources while [the Iraqis] dawdle.”

Republicans squashed the bill because there argued that by removing so many soldiers so fast we would jeopardize the region and there would be dire consequences for the Iraqi people. Senator John Mcain (R-Ariz) argued that, “If we leave, we will be back — in Iraq and elsewhere — in many more desperate fights to protect our security and at an even greater cost in American lives and treasure,”

In light of this recent defeat of anti-war legislation, the democrats are beginning to worry that a bipartisan agreement is wishful thinking and the public are beginning to wonder if republicans are in complete control of the war effort.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This new development can't be too good for the republican party. A majority of Americans want their troops back home, and the Republicans basically went against that notion by blocking this legislation. I can't see how this decision would work in the Republican's favor unless everything that is suppose to happen according to the Republicans does in the future, which seems unlikely.

natalie g said...

We've been going back and forth for a long time now trying to get the troops out of Iraq. This makes it seem as though the Republicans are in control, and could possibly effect them in the upcoming presidential election. If people are angry with them for stopping our troops from returning home, they obviously will be getting less votes. I guess this will be helpful for the Democrats.

Tara C said...

Sigh. This war is driving me (and everyone else I know) crazy. I know it's not good for Iraq, but I almost wish we would just pull out all together. There has to be a better way to make peace in a country than sending an army there. It's ironic... If Bush just swallowed his pride, the war would take a turn for the better.

Paul Slack said...

Although I feel that the United States should start pulling the troops out of Iraq in the near future, the Republicans may have a good point. If several troops are pulled out of Iraq now, order in Iraq could go haywire. Leaving now could undo years of work that our U.S. troops have been doing in Iraq. Eventually, the Democrats and the Republicans need to get on the same page and pass some kind of legislation that will resolve this isssue in Iraq or, at the least, move closer to resolving the issue.

Anonymous said...

All you have to do is look at the Vietnam war, and you'll realize that trying to continue, or win, a war that is far from lost is a bad idea. I really don't see the difference we made in Iraq; we've probably only made the situation worse by continuing to stay while terrorists continue to organize.

It's hard for the citizens there to follow what we tell them to do when many don't respect America, and we can't force them to.
I think we need to stop wasting our money and resources on something that's a lost cause.