Make it so.
Bring it on.
Feeling lucky?
THIS IS HUGE:
From The Associated Press:
WASHINGTON (AP) Determined to challenge President Bush, Senate Democrats are drafting legislation to limit the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq, effectively revoking the broad authority Congress granted in 2002, officials said Thursday.
Our long national nightmare may be far from over, but perhaps there is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
http://hosted.ap.org/...
Having said that, is it realistic to think the Democrats can maneuver such legislation through the Senate, given GOP procedural blocking power?
Moreover, such legislation would then go to Bush's desk.
At any rate, I think it is a good move to put it on the record. And bring on more debate. Put the heat on Republican senators who must face voters in 2008.
More from AP:
While these officials said the precise wording of the measure remains unsettled, one draft would restrict American troops in Iraq to combating al-Qaida, training Iraqi army and police forces, maintaining Iraq’s territorial integrity and otherwise proceeding with the withdrawal of combat forces.
The officials, Democratic aides and others familiar with private discussions, spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying rank-and-file senators had not yet been briefed on the effort. They added, though, the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to present the proposal to fellow Democrats early next week for their consideration.
The plan is to attempt to add the measure to anti-terrorism legislation that scheduled to be on the Senate floor next week and the week following.
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, declined to discuss the deliberations, saying only, ''No final decisions have been made on how to proceed.''
The decision to try to limit the military mission marks the next move in what Reid and other Senate war critics have said will be a multistep effort to force a change in Bush’s strategy and eventually force an end to U.S. participation in the nearly four-year-old war.
Earlier efforts to pass a nonbinding measure critical of Bush’s decision to deploy 21,500 additional troops ended in gridlock after Senate Republicans blocked votes on two separate measures.
Update: Coming from the Washington Post (not online yet):
''I've had enough of nonbinding,'' said Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., who is helping to draft the new Democratic proposal. The 2002 war resolution, he said, is an obvious target.
''The authorization that we gave the president back in 2002 is completely, completely outdated, inappropriate to what we're engaged in today,'' he said.
Word is Sen. Joe Biden and Sen. Carl Levin will introduce the legislation Tuesday when the Senate reconvenes.
Coming fromWaPo:
The new framework would set a March 31, 2008, goal for withdrawing combat brigades, the same timetable established by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Once the combat phase ends, troops would be restricted to assisting Iraqis with training, border security, and counterterrorism activities.
Let's face it, that is a fairly moderate proposal. While the GOP whip (Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss) will certainly try to keep the troops in line, many of the Republicans facing election in 2008 COULD be tempted if the bill echoes the Iraq Study Group.
In OTHER BREAKING NEWS:
More details on a "secret" war in the Horn of Africa:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The American military quietly waged a campaign from Ethiopia last month to capture or kill top leaders of Al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa, including the use of an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to mount airstrikes against Islamic militants in neighboring Somalia, according to American officials. The close and largely clandestine relationship with Ethiopia also included significant sharing of intelligence on the Islamic militants’ positions and information from American spy satellites with the Ethiopian military. Members of a secret American Special Operations unit, Task Force 88, were deployed in Ethiopia and Kenya, and ventured into Somalia, the officials said.
The counterterrorism effort was described by American officials as a qualified success that disrupted terrorist networks in Somalia, led to the death or capture of several Islamic militants and involved a collaborative relationship with Ethiopia that had been developing for years.
But the tally of the dead and captured does not as yet include some Qaeda leaders -- including Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam -- whom the United States has hunted for their suspected roles in the attacks on American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. With Somalia still in a chaotic state, and American and African officials struggling to cobble together a peacekeeping force for the war-ravaged country, the long-term effects of recent American operations remain unclear.