http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-assess30apr30,0,5939734.story?coll=la-home-headlinesCongress' vote on Iraq war is only a prelude
A September progress report on the troop buildup could make things a lot harder for Bush and Republicans.
By Doyle McManus, Times Staff Writer
April 30, 2007
WASHINGTON — On the surface, there's not much suspense about what happens next in the battle between President Bush and Democratic lawmakers over the war in Iraq. Bush says he will veto the $124-billion war spending bill passed by both houses of Congress last week that requires him to begin withdrawing troops this year; when he does, Democrats say, they will protest and then send him the money without binding conditions.
That noisy script, however, is just a prelude to a debate — under conditions likely to be more difficult for Bush — that could turn into a decisive moment for the course of the war.
To buy time for his buildup of more than 28,000 troops to show results, Bush asked his commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, to deliver a progress report to the nation in early September.
That helped stave off Republican defections as Congress debated whether to impose a timetable for troop withdrawals. But it also established September as a deadline for clearer military and political progress in Iraq, a tactical concession for a White House that long has refused to accept any benchmarks or timetables for evaluating the war, now 4 years old.
Democratic and Republican members of Congress already are focusing on September as their next major decision point on the war — planning hearings to debate Petraeus' findings and, in the Democrats' case, promising new attempts to force Bush to withdraw troops....
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