Reply #2: Bush, Democrats still far apart on Iraq bill

[cal04]

President George W. Bush on Saturday pressed U.S. lawmakers to give him a war-funding bill with "flexibility" while Democrats insisted they would not abandon their effort to force him to change course in Iraq.

The comments suggested entrenched positions four days after Bush vetoed a $124 billion war-spending measure that would have required a troop pullout from Iraq to begin by Oct. 1.

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"It's simply not the job of America or our troops to stand in the middle of a civil war as Sunnis and Shi'ites shoot at each other and pay no heed to the central government while our troops are caught in the crosshairs," Schumer said, adding that Democrats would not give up their effort to change Bush's Iraq policy.

"No amount of name calling, hyperbole or imputation that we don't support the troops will deter us from these goals," he said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N05291579.htm