Suddenly the Democrats in the Senate are looking like a well-coordinated group of samurai closing in on the madman, the killer, the old out-of-control district ruler. Now Senator Feingold has laid down a firm plan for cutting off funding even as Biden and James Baker are doing a careful dance around the same madman, giving him a way out or (in the cliche of the day) "a way forward."
Here's Feingold:
“Tomorrow, I will introduce legislation that will prohibit the use of funds to continue the deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq six months after enactment. By prohibiting funds after a specific deadline, Congress can force the President to bring our forces out of Iraq and out of harm’s way.
“This legislation will allow the President adequate time to redeploy our troops safely from Iraq, and it will make specific exceptions for a limited number of U.S. troops who must remain in Iraq to conduct targeted counter-terrorism and training missions and protect U.S. personnel.
“It will not hurt our troops in any way – they will continue receiving their equipment, training and salaries. It will simply prevent the President from continuing to deploy them to Iraq. By passing this bill, we can finally focus on repairing our military and countering the full range of threats that we face around the world.”
While further deployment would be ended in six months, Senator Obama offers a bill to get combat troops out of Iraq by the end of March 2008.
Obama's legislation, offered on the Senate floor last night, would remove all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008. The date falls within the parameters offered by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which recommended the removal of combat troops by the first quarter of next year. Save & Share Article What's This? Digg Google del.icio.us Yahoo! Reddit Facebook "The days of our open-ended commitment must come to a close," Obama said in his speech. "It is time for us to fundamentally change our policy. It is time to give Iraqis their country back."
Here are Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton talking to Senators Biden and Hagel about bring Syria in and marginalizing Iran and bringing Syria in:
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Baker said, ''We could get them (Syria) to get Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist. It would be a huge step in the right direction.''
Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the State Department and the European Union, dominates the Palestinian government through its election a year ago. The Bush administration has been reluctant to talk to Syria, citing its support for groups like Hamas. Baker was secretary of State under Bush's father, the first President Bush. Baker told the committee he had discussed the situation with senior Syrian officials on a trip to the country as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that recommended several changes in Bush's Iraq strategy.
Most of the recommendations were ignored by the administration. Baker said the United States in talks with Syria also ''could get them to stop arming Hezbollah,'' a Lebanese militia backed by Iran that has a foothold in the Lebanese government and fought a war with Israel last summer. The co-chair of the study group, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., said Syria has been ''sending signals to us'' that they want to talk to the United States.
The squeeze is on.
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