U.S. Senate Republicans bar Iraq withdrawal plan

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/U_S_Senate_Republicans_bar_Iraq_withdrawal_plan.html?siteSect=143&sid=8429364&cKey=1195237359000&ty=ti

By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a $50 billion Iraq war bill that included a troop pullout plan, killing the latest Democratic attempt to end the war while keeping up the fight over its funding.

Despite passionate appeals by Democrats, who noted that 2007 had been the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Iraq so far, Republicans stopped the proposal that had passed the House of Representatives on a largely partisan vote on Wednesday.

The measure needed 60 votes to pass under Senate rules; it only got 53 votes, with 45 senators voting against, all but two of them Republicans.

The bill would have given President George W. Bush about a quarter of the $196 billion he wants for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal 2008, while setting a goal that all U.S. combat soldiers withdraw from Iraq by December 15, 2008.

"What will it take to end this war? How many lives, how many limbs, how many broken families, how many innocent victims?" the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, asked. Over 850 U.S. soldiers have died this year.

[MiniMe]

1. That headline burns me up. Just goes to show you the dems don't know how

to spin it right. The headline should be: "Republicans block bill to fund troops". Then they can include in the story that the bill included a withdrawl plan.

[NNN0LHI]

2. The Dems don't know how to spin it right?

You think the Dems are writing these headlines?

Don

[MiniMe]

3. Not at all, but, they need to keep repeating to the media over and over

that the republicans are blocking funding for the troops. You think that the republicans aren't out there saying that the dems won't take the deadline out so they are blocking funding?