Fight over Iraq war funds heads to new phase

Washington, Apr 29: A fierce political battle over a Democratic plan to pull US troops from Iraq is moving toward a critical stage as President George W Bush prepares to veto it, but talks on a new bill have quietly begun.

The Democratic-led Congress plans to send Bush a bill on Tuesday that gives 124 billion dollar for the Iraq war but requires a pullout to begin by October 1. The White House has said Bush will waste no time in vetoing it.

Harsh rhetoric has marked the debate, with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada saying Bush has already lost the war and Republicans calling Reid a defeatist.

Two front-runners in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, spoke strongly against the war in speeches yesterday to party activists in California.

''The first thing I will do upon taking office is to end the war in Iraq,'' Clinton said.

But behind the scenes, many from both sides expect an eventual compromise.

One compromise effort will focus on so-called benchmarks -- goals for measuring Iraqi progress.

On Friday, Bush said again he ''won't accept'' any bill with pullout dates. But he invited Democratic and Republican leaders to a White House meeting on Wednesday to discuss a second attempt at writing a war-funding bill. ''I believe we can work a way forward,'' he said.

'Promising'

While criticizing Bush's swagger, Reid also took a conciliatory tone in saying some of the president's remarks have been ''promising.'' Reid said he had met with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and planned to do so again tomorrow.

White House budget director Rob Portman told Reuters he hoped that once the showdown over the current Iraq bill plays out, ''we'll get a more serious discussion'' on new legislation.

Senate Armed Services panel Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, has discussed language in a second bill to measure the Iraqi government's progress on goals like a law to share oil revenues fairly among Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds.

McConnell and other congressional Republicans have signaled openness to benchmarks. A senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that was a ''promising area'' and praised Levin's role.

Yet the White House and many Republicans dislike an approach favored by some Democrats that would reduce aid to Iraq's government if it fails to meet goals, saying that would harm its ability to get up on its feet.

SEPARATE TRACK On a separate track, Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a vocal war critic, has talked of a bill removing timetables but funding the war for just one or two months.

Portman said a short-term bill would only ''kick the can down the road'' and would impede military planning.

Antiwar Democrats believe that over the next few months, Republican support for the war will erode further and, as more bills come up for debate, they will win more support for withdrawing troops.

Rep Jo Ann Emerson, a Missouri Republican, voted ''present'' on the war-funding bill after opposing a Democratic draft in March. She said she could abide neither the way the war is being run nor what she said was a bill that ''politicizes'' the process of funding the troops.

Democrats will highlight the unprecedented rebuke they are delivering to Bush when they send him their bill on Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of Bush's speech aboard an aircraft carrier declaring the end to major combat operations in Iraq.

As a reminder of the anniversary, antiwar groups are running television advertisements showing footage of Bush on the carrier, decorated with a ''Mission Accomplished'' banner.

If the past is any guide, Bush will not pass up the occasion of his veto to repeat his criticism that timetables would handcuff military leaders and undermine the troops.

The US military said yesterday nine soldiers had been killed in Iraq in the past two days, raising to nearly 100 the number of troops killed in April, one of the deadliest months for US forces since the 2003 invasion.

Reuters>