Congressional Democrats embrace Republican resolution on Iraq

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, announced the decision by party leaders to abandon their own toothless nonbinding resolution in favor of an even more innocuous measure introduced by Senator John Warner, a Virginia Republican and former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

On Thursday, Senators Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, declared that they too would back Warner’s measure. The two were sponsors of another resolution more sharply critical of the administration’s decision to send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq, The third sponsor of that resolution, Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, had joined Warner’s camp the day before.

Warner revised his resolution to include specific language foreswearing any cutoff of funding for the Iraq war, ostensibly with the aim of attracting more Republican backing. At the same time, the measure does not include language incorporated into the Biden-Levin-Hagel resolution describing the escalation as against US national interests.

The clause inserted into the new proposal reads, “Congress should not take any action that will endanger the United States military forces in the field, including the elimination or reduction of funds for troops in the field.”

As a sop to the Democrats, Warner removed one clause that suggested the Senate could give its support for a troop surge of somewhat smaller dimensions.

House Democrat also embraced the watered-down measure, on the grounds that it would garner more bipartisan support. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California instructed committees to draft new resolutions paralleling Warner’s draft.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/reso-f02.shtml