U.S. President George W. Bush makes a
statement about the war supplemental funding bill and then answers
questions from the press in the Rose Garden at the White House in
Washington April 3, 2007. Currently the bill is calling for a withdrawal
of United States forces from Iraq in 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters
Photo)
WASHINGTON, April 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush renewed his pledge
on Tuesday to veto a war funding bill that includes a deadline for withdrawing
U.S. troops from Iraq.
"I've made it clear for weeks that if either the
House or Senate version of this bill comes to my desk, I will veto it," Bush
said at a White House press conference.
Both the Senate and the House have passes bills that
would provide money for this year's U.S. military operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan and set a timetable for the Bush administration to pull combat
troops out of Iraq.
The bill approved by the Senate last week requires
Bush to start withdrawal within 120 days after its becomes law, and aims to pull
out all combat forces by March 31, 2008. The House measure asks the president to
bring most combat troops home by Aug. 31 next year.
Bush accuses congressional Democrats of "substituting
the judgment of politicians in Washington for the judgment of our commanders on
the ground, setting an arbitrary deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, and spending
billions of dollars on pork-barrel projects completely unrelated to the war."
"Democrat leaders in Congress seem more interested in
fighting political battles in Washington than providing our troops what they
need to fight the battles in Iraq," he said.
He urged Congress to send the "unacceptable" bill as
quickly as possible so he could veto it and Congress could "get down to the
business of funding our troops without strings and without delay."
Bush said the U.S. military "surge" in Iraq was
producing an impact.
"The reinforcements we've sent to Baghdad are having
an impact. They're making a difference," he said.
Bush announced early this year of sending over 20,000
additional American soldiers to Iraq, to help fight sectarian violence in the
war-ravaged country. The move, however, has met strong resistance from
Democratic-controlled Congress.
According to Bush, two of the five additional U.S.
Army brigades being sent to Iraq were operating in Baghdad, and a third brigade
was moving from Kuwait and would be fully operational in Baghdad in the coming
weeks. The remaining two brigades would deploy in Iraq in April and May.
"As more of those reinforcements arrive in the months
ahead, their impact will continue to grow," he said.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Monday that the
U.S. military was maintaining a troop level of 20 combat brigades in Iraq, and
with additional troops rotating into Iraq, the buildup would continue at that
level through August 2007.
Currently there are about 145,000 U.S. troops in
Iraq, and over 3,200 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war
started in March 2003. When all the additional troops were deployed, the total
of U.S. troops in Iraq would reach about 160,000.
WASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Democratic Senator Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, proposed on Monday cutting off funds for the Iraq war if the proposal to set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq was rejected by President George W. Bush.
Reid said if Bush rejects the legislation with a pullout deadline, he would join forces with Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, who has called to end the war by denying funding for it.
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