US:President George Bush has accused Democrats in Congress of interfering with the conduct of the war in Iraq and endangering US soldiers and American security. Speaking a day after the Senate voted by 50-48 to include a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq in a new military spending Bill, Mr Bush warned that setting such a deadline would be disastrous.
"Our enemies in Iraq would simply have to mark their calendars. They'd spend the months ahead plotting how to use their new safe haven once we were to leave. It makes no sense for politicians in Washington DC to be dictating arbitrary timelines for our military commanders in a war zone 6,000 miles away," he said. The president has vowed to veto any Bill from Congress that attaches conditions to funding for the war in Iraq.
Tuesday's vote in support of a timetable for withdrawal was an unexpected victory for the Democratic leadership that followed the passage last week of a Bill in the House of Representatives which also links war funding to a deadline for withdrawal. The Senate is expected to vote on the funding Bill today and with Republicans promising not to filibuster, it is almost certain to be approved. Republicans Gordon Smith of Oregon and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska joined with most Democrats to back a timetable for withdrawal but Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman opposed it.
The $121.7bn Senate legislation would set a goal of withdrawing most US troops from Iraq by a year from now. The $124.3bn White House version calls for troop withdrawal by the end of August 2008.
If the Senate passes its Bill, the two houses will negotiate a compromise, which is now also likely to include a deadline for withdrawal. Democratic senator Chuck Schumer acknowledged that Mr Bush will almost certainly veto the Bill but he said the struggle to end the war in Iraq would not be decided in a single legislative battle.
"It's a long-term campaign to persuade the president, to pressure the president to change course. Every time we have a vote like this, it ratchets up the pressure on the president and on many of those of his party who are caught between his desire to stay with the same policy in Iraq and the American people's common sense, deep, deep knowledge that we have to change course," Mr Schumer said.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid said Mr Bush should understand how serious Congress is about attaching some sort of timetable to the funding and called on him to compromise. "Rather than making all the threats that he has, let's work with him and see if he can give us some ideas how we can satisfy the wishes of a majority of the Senate, the majority of the House and move forward," he said.
Mr Bush said yesterday that his decision to send 20,000 extra troops to Iraq was already bearing fruit and that, by improving security in Baghdad, US and Iraqi forces were winning the confidence of the civilian population.
"The Democrats cannot have it both ways. They can't say that the Iraqis must do more, and then take away the funds that will help them do so. Iraq is a young democracy. It is fighting for its survival in a region that is vital to our security," he said.