Getting Out of Iraq: What Congress Can Do

In today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Congress's Constitutional power to end the Iraq War, Senator Russ Feingold announced:

Tomorrow, I will introduce legislation that will prohibit the use of funds to continue the deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq six months after enactment. By prohibiting funds after a specific deadline, Congress can force the President to bring our forces out of Iraq and out of harm’s way.

This legislation will allow the President adequate time to redeploy our troops safely from Iraq, and it will make specific exceptions for a limited number of U.S. troops who must remain in Iraq to conduct targeted counter-terrorism and training missions and protect U.S. personnel. It will not hurt our troops in any way – they will continue receiving their equipment, training and salaries. It will simply prevent the President from continuing to deploy them to Iraq. By passing this bill, we can finally focus on repairing our military and countering the full range of threats that we face around the world.

Senator Feingold is facing the reality that the American people and Congress must deal with:

If and when Congress acts on the will of the American people by ending our involvement in the Iraq war, Congress will be performing the role assigned it by the founding fathers – defining the nature of our military commitments and acting as a check on a President whose policies are weakening our nation.

There is little doubt that decisive action from the Congress is needed. Despite the results of the election, and two months of study and supposed consultation -- during which experts and members of Congress from across the political spectrum argued for a new policy -- the President has decided to escalate the war. When asked whether he would persist in this policy despite congressional opposition, he replied: "Frankly, that’s not their responsibility...."

The President of the United States will defy Congress, the Iraq Study group, the majority of the American people in pushing escalation. The choices for Congress and the American people are stark: 1) allow President Bush to continue to escalate a failed policy which will lead to the loss of thousands of more American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, and the sqandering of hundreds of billions of dollars; or 2) stop this President's continued folly.

Here's Senator Feingold explaining his legislation:

(H/T TChris at TalkLeft for the Feingold statement link.)

Update: Senator Feingold is appearing now on CNN with Blitzer to discuss his proposal.