Accusing Congress of condemning his Iraq policy “before it has a chance to work,” President Bush on Tuesday blasted a House resolution opposing his “surge” of more troops into Iraq.
“Later this week, the House of Representatives will vote on a resolution that opposes our new plan in Iraq before it has a chance to work,” Bush said in an East Room press conference. “People are prejudging the outcome of this.”
Bush pointed out that the resolution, which was blocked in the Senate, has no legal impact on his policy, even it is passed by the House.
“It is a nonbinding resolution,” he said in his first news conference of 2007. “My hope, however, is that this nonbinding resolution doesn’t try to turn into a binding policy that prevents our troops from doing that which I have asked them to do.”
He added: “Soon, Congress is going to be able to vote on a piece of legislation that is binding — a bill providing emergency funding for our troops. Our troops are counting on their elected leaders in Washington, D.C., to provide them with the support they need to do their mission.”
Democrats were quick to counter the president’s criticism of the non-binding resolution, which expresses disapproval of Bush’s plan to send 21,500 additional troops into Iraq.
“Bush urged Congress not to prejudge his escalation plan,” said a statement issued by the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “But Americans have waited almost four years for a change of course in Iraq.”
Bush hinted that the actions of Congress might send the wrong message to U.S. troops. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., such rhetoric is an attempt to “mischaracterize” the Democrats’ message.
“Some say that the resolution will demoralize our troops,” he said on the House floor. “In a democracy, it is proper and essential that we debate the tactics and strategy we are employing when we are asking young Americans -— and some not-so-young Americans — to be at the point of the spear.”
Bush said Democrats were not giving a fair chance to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has been in office for less than a year.
“Unlike some here, I’m a little more tolerant of a person who has been only in government for seven months and … a government that hadn’t had a lot of experience with democracy,” he said.
