Leahy And Sanders Again Vote
To Withdraw U.S. Troops From Iraq

WASHINGTON (Wednesday, May 16) -- U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday voted again to bring American troops home from Iraq. 

The Senate vote came on an amendment offered by Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), which requires the President to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq by March 31, 2008.  Leahy and Sanders are leading cosponsors of the amendment, which makes limited exceptions for small numbers of troops needed to train Iraqi troops, to protect remaining American personnel, and for counter-terrorism efforts.  The amendment lost in a procedural vote of 29 to 67.

The amendment backed by Leahy and Sanders is stronger still than the redeployment provisions that recently prompted President Bush to veto a supplemental appropriations bill.  

After the vote, Leahy said, “The nation was misled into a war that White House incompetence has made increasingly worse for our troops, for Iraqis and for our country.  Instead of making us safer, this war has diverted our attention and resources from the fight against Al Qaeda and from a lengthening list of other security and foreign policy challenges.  We need to keep pushing, step by step, until we succeed in getting our troops out of the middle of Iraq’s civil war.”

Sanders said, “Today, I voted for legislation to start bringing our troops home within four months and have virtually everyone out of Iraq by the end of next March.  The war in Iraq, which President Bush misled us into, has been a disaster. The American people know it.  The Iraqis know it.  The shrinking coalition that backed the invasion in the first place knows it. Only President Bush and his blind loyalists are ignoring reality by refusing to change course in Iraq.  This amendment would allow for a responsible, phased redeployment that will remove our service members from the crossfire of an escalating civil war in Iraq.  It would also send a clear message to the Iraqi people themselves that they must begin to work through the difficult issues that will be necessary to create a stable and lasting peace.  It will also allow us to better focus our energies on combating the very serious problems of international terrorism.

“Our country has lost some 3,300 soldiers -- while 24,000 others have been wounded.  Tens of thousands more will come home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  There are estimates that as many as 500,000 Iraqis have died.  Over 2 million Iraqis have fled their country and another 2 million have been displaced as a result of violence and ‘ethnic cleansing.’

Sanders continued, “At a time when our country has a record-breaking national debt, the war in Iraq has cost us almost $500 billion, and the final cost will almost certainly be more than $1 trillion. Meanwhile, because of our continued occupation in Iraq, demagogues like Osama bin Laden are able to rally Islamic fanatics around the world, and the number of terrorist attacks grows higher and higher.  The time is overdue for a change in Iraq – for us to bring our troops home, to engage Iraq’s neighbors and the international community in a diplomatic solution, and to support those elements in Iraq who want to create a stable Iraq with economic assistance.”

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