Speaker of the US House of
Representatives Nancy Pelosi speaks during a Capitol Hill press conference
in Washington, DC. US Democrats directly challenged President George W.
Bush Thursday, with a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq by August 2008.
(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo
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WASHINGTON, March 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday that would have U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by August 2008.
The troop withdrawal timetable would be embedded in
appropriations legislation that provided nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars the
Bush administration has requested for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The measure would mark the first time the
Democratic-controlled Congress has established a date certain for the end of
U.S. combat in the Iraq war, which has lasted nearly four years and left nearly
3,200 U.S. troops dead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference.
The measure would "refocus our military efforts on
Afghanistan and fighting the war on terrorism where it began," said Pelosi, the
first woman speaker in U.S. history.
The bill requires the Bush administration and the
Iraqi government meet a series of benchmarks showing progress in bringing
stability to Iraq, and that if those conditions have not been met, a 180-day
withdrawal of U.S. troops would begin.
"No matter what, by March 2008, the redeployment
begins," Pelosi said.
The Democratic measure was immediately attacked by
Republicans.
The legislation proposed by Democrats amounted to
"establishing and telegraphing to our enemy a timetable," said House Minority
Leader John Boehner.
He said the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David
Petraeus, who took command last month, should be the one "making the decisions
on what happens on the ground in Iraq, not Nancy Pelosi or (Democratic
Representative) John Murtha."
Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in
last November's elections, partly because of the public's strong opposition to
the Iraq war.
WASHINGTON, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The White House said
Thursday that U.S. President George W. Bush would veto the legislation unveiled
by Democrats that called for withdrawing American troops from Iraq by late 2008.
Dan Bartlett, an aide to the president, said during Bush's
trip to Latin America that the administration would "vehemently oppose and
ultimately veto any legislation that looks like what was described today."
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