June 16, 2006
House Rejects Iraq Pullout Timetable
Via Breitbart, tip from Drudge:
The House on Friday handily rejected a timetable for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq, culminating a fiercely partisan debate between Republicans and Democrats feeling the public's apprehension about war and the onrushing midterm campaign season.
In a 256-153 vote, the GOP-led House approved a nonbinding resolution that praises U.S. troops, labels the Iraq war part of the larger global fight against terrorism and says an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of troops is not in the national interest.
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) conceded in her usual gracious manner, calling the war a "grotesque mistake." Jack Murtha (D-PA) said, "It's not a matter of stay the course. It's a matter of change direction." That direction being back, not forward.
Democrats complained "the debate and vote as a politically motivated charade." Why? The Dems are the ones calling for a pullout, then whine about charades when they are called on their bluff and lose. This is not the first time the Dems have cried foul regarding such a vote; last November a vote regarding an immediate pullout received only three yeas. This was also called "a political stunt that prohibited thoughtful debate on the issue" by the Dems.
You may remember that back in November the Senate also rejected a call for a specific pullout date.
In other words, Dems talk the pullout talk, but can't walk the pullout walk. It's, er, surprising that they can't seem to stick to their principles...
Pulling out before we are sure that the Iraqi government and its military can successfully ward off al-Qaeda and other terrorist attacks is tatamount to abandoning the sheep to the wolves. Then what would all of our involvement have amounted to? Nothing. And if, as a result, Iraq fell to the terrorists, guess who would be portioning out the blame and who would be receiving it?
If you're interested in how your representative voted, the roll call tally is here.
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