Two hours after President Bush vowed Monday to veto any schedule for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defiantly called for a pullout to begin in the fall.
“I will strongly reject an artificial timetable,” Bush told reporters in the Oval Office after meeting with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
“Politicians in Washington shouldn’t be telling generals how to do their job,” he said. “And I believe artificial timetables of withdrawal would be a mistake.”
In a speech later, Reid, D-Nev., said Congress will approve legislation this week requiring that a withdrawal begin by Oct. 1, with the final troops removed within six months. The only U.S. troops that will remain would be those training Iraqi soldiers and those necessary for “targeted counterterror operations.”
The political brinkmanship kicked off debate this week in Congress over legislation that would provide funding for the war for roughly another year. The legislation is expected to narrowly pass both chambers and be vetoed by Bush. There is not enough support in Congress to override Bush’s veto.
Bush has also promised to veto the “emergency” spending bill because both versions advanced so far contain roughly $20 billion in “pork” spending unrelated to the war effort. Members of both chambers are having secret meetings to hammer out the exact withdrawal language and determine which spending projects will remain in the final version.
In a speech hosted by Third Way, a liberal group that favors withdrawal, Reid said Bush is in a “state of denial” over the war, which the senator compared to Vietnam.
“American casualties are increasing, not decreasing,” said Reid, who voted in 2002 to go to war with Iraq. “Four coalition troops have been killed each day this month, making it one of the deadliest months in the war in over two years.”
Last week, Reid drew harsh criticism from Republicans for saying that the war is “lost,” which set off a flurry of Arabic news reports across the Middle East that the U.S. had surrendered.
In his comments Monday, Bush also defended his decision to send reinforcements to the region.
“There’s been some progress,” he said. “There’s been some horrific bombings, of course, but there’s also a decline in sectarian violence.”
Reid, meanwhile, chided Bush for his promise to veto the spending bill and urged him to come up with an alternative.
“Instead of sending us back to square one with a veto, some tough talk and nothing more, let him come to the table in the spirit of bipartisanship,” Reid said.
