WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats defiantly charged ahead Thursday with legislation ordering troops home from Iraq, still lacking the votes to win but armed with the mantra that Republicans, along with President Bush, now own the war.
“They want this war more than they want to protect our soldiers,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “When I say they want the war, they want to protect their president more than they want to protect our troops.”
Reid spoke minutes after Republicans successfully pushed through, by a 72-25 vote, a resolution condemning an advertisement by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org. Displayed in The New York Times, the ad taunted Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, as “General Betray Us.”
Reid’s tough rhetoric reflected frustration by Democrats that more Republicans haven’t broken with Bush on the war. Several Republican senators had grown increasingly anxious throughout the summer about the violence in Iraq and lack of political progress in Baghdad.
But despite a small group of challengers to the war, the GOP largely has stood behind Bush. On Wednesday, Republicans blocked legislation by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would have guaranteed troops more time at home. On Thursday, the Senate voted 28-70 to block legislation sponsored by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., that would have cut off funding for combat in June 2008.
“No matter where my colleagues came down in 2003 about the centrality of Iraq to the war on terror, there can simply be no debate that our efforts in Iraq today are critical to the wider struggle against violent Islamic extremism,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.
Sen. Gordon Smith, one of the few Republican senators who supports legislation ordering troop withdrawals, said he thought Petraeus’ testimony last week and the MoveOn.org ad were the two biggest factors in keeping Republicans from breaking ranks with the president: Petraeus’ testimony because it was persuasive and the ad because it attacked a popular uniformed officer.
“It was stupid on their part and disgraceful,” said Smith, R-Ore.
Reid planned to try again today with another anti-war proposal by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Levin’s bill would order combat troops home in nine months. But that too was expected to fail, with Republicans saying they still opposed setting a firm deadline on the war.
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