NYT/Reuters: Biden Sees Large Vote Against Bush Iraq Plan: "Overwhelming majority opposed"

[DeepModem Mom]

Biden Sees Large Vote Against Bush Iraq Plan
By REUTERS
Published: January 23, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday predicted the Senate would overwhelmingly reject the Bush administration's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

"My guess is there will be an overwhelming rejection, on the record, of ... 'stay the course' with 20,000 more,'' Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, told the committee.

Biden noted there were now two bipartisan proposals in the Senate -- one drafted by himself and several other senators, and a second by Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner and others -- that said "almost the same thing'' opposing Bush's plan to add 21,500 troops to Baghdad and Anbar province.

Biden's committee was due to bring the first of the resolutions up for a vote on Wednesday. Warner, the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, unveiled his proposal on Monday....

Outside the hearing, Biden told Reuters his staff was working with Warner's staff to try and craft a joint proposal.

"It's possible,'' Biden said. "We're trying. Our staffs are talking ... The main thing is, the overwhelming majority is opposed to what the president is doing.''

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-iraq-usa-congress.html

[acmavm]

1. Well, 3,000 are already in Baghdad that we know of. How many more

could be there already?

[Marrah_G]

5. 21,000 troops does not necessarily mean new troops

Often an "escalation" is done through extension of current troops deployment.

An example

140,000 troops on the ground
20,000 due for rotation ( 20,000 in and 20,00 out)
then add in the cancellation of the 20,000 due to go home.

What you have is a 160,000 troops without calling up anyone that wasn't already scheduled to deploy.

[SoFlaJet]

2. a joint resolution

makes sense since the two proposals are saying pretty much the same thing-we don't like your ideas Mr.President

[rodeodance]

3. Bush urges Congress to embrace Iraq policy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/state_of_union

Bush urges Congress to embrace Iraq policy

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 32 minutes ago

WASHINGTON -
President Bush wants Congress to give his controversial strategy for
Iraq a chance to work. Defiant Democrats say they'll give it a vote, and use their newly won control over the House and Senate to oppose the deployment of an additional 21,500 troops.

"And we will continue to hold him accountable for changing course in Iraq," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) said Tuesday night in a blunt response issued before the applause had fully faded on Bush's State of the Union address.


.........

Bush arranged a trip Wilmington, Del., for the day after his speech, eager to plug his energy proposals at a DuPont Co. facility where scientists conduct research on the use of plants in the production of biofuels such as celluosic ethanol.

But Democrats determined they would keep the public spotlight on the war, with the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee expected to approve a nonbinding measure that rejects Bush's planned troop increase as "not in the national interest of the United States."

[springhill]

4. It doesn't really matter.....................

what Congress or the people think...........as he said in the 60 minutes interview, he will go ahead with his plan regardless of what Congress wants. He is the decider after all.