Iraq bill in House; activists restive

By Matthew Hay Brown, Chicago Tribune

House Democrats are preparing another emergency war spending bill, and the antiwar movement is growing restive.

"In 2006, the voters of this country gave Congress a clear mandate to end the occupation of Iraq through a stunning Democratic electoral victory," Tim Carpenter, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, said Wednesday.

"But now, in 2008, we're still waiting for the war to end, while conditions get worse both here and in Iraq," he said. "To put it bluntly, if this Congress won't stand up and put an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq, and start addressing our needs at home beginning with a national single payer healthcare system, then we'll elect Democratic candidates who will."

The $195 billion legislation, which could come to a vote this week, includes funds to pay for military options in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring, with the requirement that the Pentagon begin removing combat troops within 30 days, starting a pullout that would be completed by the end of 2009.

It also would expand education funding for service members, extend unemployment insurance, suspend new rules that cut Medicaid funding for the poor and disabled, strengthen levees in New Orleans and restore funding for military base realignment.
Lawmakers will consider the bill in three separate parts, voting on the war funding, war policy and domestic spending.

President Bush has told Congress to give him the money for Iraq and Afghanistan without restrictions or add-ons; Republicans have accused Democrats of playing politics with the troops by loading up their legislation with other projects.

But some of the strongest opposition is coming from the antiwar left, where some oppose any additional war funding under any circumstances. Democrats.com is advising supporters to tell their representatives to "stop the Iraq sellout;" Progressive Democrats of America will be going door to door with its "Healthcare not Warfare" campaign.

Iraq Campaign 2008, a coalition that includes MoveOn.org Political Action, SEIU, Americans United for Change, USAction, Win Without War, Council for a Livable World and TrueMajority.org, is urging lawmakers to vote against war funding and for the timetable and the domestic spending.

"Balancing a lot of competing demands, the leadership in the House has managed to give members an opportunity to vote to repudiate President Bush's failed, endless, 100-year Iraq war strategy which has made us less safe, pushed our military to the breaking point and the cost of which has hurt our economy and sacrificed vital domestic priorities," the groups said in a joint statement.

"The restrictions on Bush's war policy, including a timeline to withdraw troops, anti-torture provisions, a ban on permanent bases and new troop training and readiness requirements would represent the most significant restriction on President Bush's war policy since the war began in 2003. In addition, the investment in vital domestic priorities - including enhanced educational benefits for veterans - represents the type of rebalancing of critical national priorities which we have been arguing for and which President Bush abandoned in favor of spending $12 billion a month on a failed war effort in Iraq.

"Tomorrow, Members of the House have the opportunity to repudiate the endless war policy of President Bush and his allies by voting against continuing funding for the war, for a timeline to withdraw troops and other restrictions on Bush's war policy and for investments in critical domestic and international priorities including enhanced educational benefits for veterans. We urge them to do all three."