US House panel sets 2008 troop pullout from Iraq
Source: Reuters
(Updates with details) By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - A Democratic plan to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008, was approved by a key committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. On a mostly partisan 36-28 vote, the House Appropriations Committee approved a $124.1 billion emergency spending bill, including around $100 billion to continue fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bill, which could be debated in the full House as early as next week, would set strict conditions on continuing the Iraq war for the next 18 months and would end U.S. combat there by the end of August of next year at the latest. The White House has threatened a presidential veto of the legislation. "We are trying to deliver a message to the politicians in Iraq that we are not going to sit around forever watching them dither, watching them refuse to compromise, while our troops die," House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, said. The legislation marked the first time a congressional committee voted to put binding limits on the duration of the 4-year-old war in Iraq. But the measure's future was uncertain. House Democratic leaders are girding for a close vote in the full House and the legislation is unlikely to attract enough support in the 100-member Senate, where a 60-vote majority is often needed for controversial initiatives.
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