Iraq War debate: a must, a bust

Congress plunged into divisive election-year debate on the Iraq War yesterday as the U.S. military death toll reached 2,500. The Senate soundly rejected a call to withdraw combat troops by year’s end, and House Republicans laid the groundwork for their own vote.

In a move Democrats criticized as gamesmanship, Senate Republicans brought up the withdrawal measure and quickly dispatched it — for now — on a 93-6 vote.

The proposal would have allowed “only forces that are critical to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces” to remain in Iraq in 2007.

Across Capitol Hill in a daylong House debate, Republicans defended the Iraq War as a key part of a global fight against terrorism while Democrats assailed President Bush’s war policies and called for a new direction in the conflict.

“When our freedom is challenged, Americans do not run,” House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said in remarks laden with references to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“This is a war that is a grotesque mistake,” countered House Democratic leader Nancy P. Pelosi of California. She called for a fresh strategy — “one that will make us safer, strengthen our military, and restore our reputation in the world.”

Republicans moved toward a vote on a resolution to reject any timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces.

Congress roared into debate on the three-year conflict four months before midterm elections that will decide the control of both the House and Senate — and as Bush was trying to rebuild waning public support for the conflict.

The administration was so determined to get its message out that the Pentagon distributed a highly unusual 74-page “debate prep book” filled with ready-made answers for criticism of the war.

“We cannot cut and run,” the Pentagon battle plan says at one point, anticipating Democratic calls for a troop withdrawal on a fixed timetable.

The Senate yesterday sent the president an additional $66 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan — legislation Bush promptly signed. Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced the U.S. death toll for the war had reached 2,500.

“It’s a number,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said of the grim milestone. He said that Bush “feels very deeply the pain that the families feel.”

The president has tried to rally support for the war, but as the deaths and the cost of the conflict continue to rise, opinion polls show voters increasingly frustrated and favoring Democrats to control Congress instead of Republicans.

Sensitive to those political realities, Republicans in the Senate and House sought to put lawmakers of both parties on record on an issue central to this fall’s congressional elections.

The Senate vote unfolded unexpectedly as the second-ranking leader, A. Mitchell McConnell, R-Ky., introduced legislation he said was taken from a proposal by Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., a war critic. It called for Bush to agree with the Iraqi government on a schedule for withdrawal of combat troops by Dec. 31, 2006.

Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist , R-Tenn., said that if the United States withdrew prematurely, “I am absolutely convinced the terrorists would see this as vindication.” He predicted terrorism would spread around the world and eventually reach the United States if the United States were to “cut and run” before Iraq can defend itself.

Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada shot back: “Two things that don’t exist in Iraq and have not, weapons of mass destruction, and cutting and running.”

He accused Republicans of political gamesmanship and sought to curtail floor debate on the proposal. The vote occurred quickly.

Kerry called the vote “fictitious” and promised further debate next week on the issue. He and five other Democrats were in the minority on the vote — Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, Barbara Boxer of California, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Thomas R. Harkin of Iowa and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Senate Republicans claimed victory with the lopsided tally.