Democrats say will pass Iraq pull-out date
Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:25PM EDT
By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Democrats predicted on Wednesday they would win passage of a hotly contested war funding bill with a timetable to pull American troops out of Iraq, saying information from the top U.S. commander there had only reinforced their position.


President George W. Bush has said he will veto the measure, even though it contains $100 billion he asked for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, because of exit timelines Democrats attached to bring U.S. combat troops out of Iraq early next year.

Voting could be close on the bill, which would set a nonbinding March 31 goal for bringing U.S. combat troops out of Iraq. The Senate is expected to pass the bill on Thursday.

"We're going to pass this bill," said Rep. Steny Hoyer, the leader of the Democratic majority, after an 11th-hour session with Gen. David Petraeus, set up by the White House in hopes lawmakers would give Bush's war strategy another chance.

Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, briefed members of the House of Representatives just hours before they were to vote on the bill. He also briefed senators.

Petraeus told reporters there had been progress in reducing sectarian murders in Baghdad, but Al Qaeda had dealt some serious blows. "The ability of Al Qaeda to continue horrific sensational attacks obviously has represented a setback," he said.

"This briefing reinforced our view that the solution in Iraq is a political solution," said Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, adding that it strengthened the idea that "we must hold the Iraqis accountable for achieving real progress and establish a timetable" for U.S. troops to go.

But Republicans, who were in the same briefing, said they thought Petraeus was not comfortable with the idea of the timetable for a troop pullout attached to the funding bill.

"I believe generally that what was said by the general and others is that that would not be helpful to his cause, and...would hurt the very cause that we seek to win there," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican.

Petraeus told reporters he did not want to get into the "minefield" of legislative proposals. "I'm not being pressured by the president to say anything," he declared. "I'm a soldier and I'm going to give a forthright assessment, and that's all that I will provide."

Petraeus is implementing Bush's strategy in which tens of thousands of extra U.S. and Iraqi troops have been deployed in Baghdad this year to try to staunch the sectarian killing and insurgent attacks.

Bush has railed for weeks against the withdrawal plan attached by Democrats.

Republicans hoped Democrats would listen to Petraeus, although many doubted he could change minds. "I think minds are made up on this particular legislative vehicle," said Rep. Jim McCrery, a Louisiana Republican, who still hoped for an eventual compromise on the bill after Bush vetoes it.

Rep. Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat, spoke disparagingly about the Petraeus briefing. "It's 'staying the course.' They are all talking off the same script, which is the White House script as far as I'm concerned," he said.

At least 85 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq this month, making April the deadliest since December, when 112 were killed. More than 3,300 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan)