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Reid, Pelosi Fire Back at Bush on Iraq

April 10, 2008 3:38 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: Within moments of President Bush concluding his speech announcing greater "dwell time" for troops, Democrats were responding in front of cameras just off the Senate floor.

They pointed out that the President opposed their attempts last year to give troops more dwell time by enshrining a one month in-country deployment to one month in the US. At that time, Senate Republicans labeled the plan proposed by Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a backdoor attempt to institute a timetable for withdrawal.

"It's important that people stand up, not for something vague and abstract, but something that is black and white: If you're in Iraq or Afghanistan for 12 months, then you have to be home at least 12 months," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"The president still doesn't understand that America's limited resources cannot support this endless war that he's gotten us involved in. His announcement, while some look to as a great victory, is, I say, two steps backwards and one step forward."

Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi concentrated on the cost of the war. Reid said it is costing Americans "$5,000 a second." Pelosi said the war is being paid for with borrowed money, and the ensuing debt that is dragging the U.S. economy into recession.

Reid and Pelosi were joined by leaders of Veterans groups. Disabled Vietnam Vet Bobby Muller, the head of Veterans for America, said the President's pledge to give troops shorter deployments is a "bogus statement."

"We are out of troops. The army is out of troops. End of conversation," Muller said.

Reid said the Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker's testimony, which counseled a pause in the drawdown of troops to pre-surge levels in July, ignores the broader problems for the country.

"I have the greatest admiration and respect for General Petraeus," Reid said. "But we as a country have more than Iraq to worry about. . . Did we learn anything about America being any safer? No."

On the President's call for Democrats to send him supplemental war spending bills without changing his requests, Reid chuckled and said he and Pelosi hadn't been "born politically yesterday."

"We are the ones that have taken care of the troops.  We're the ones that first called for the need for body armor for people that are there fighting for us, like the men behind us today.  We're the first to call for up-armoring our vehicles. So, the president need not lecture us on taking care of the troops," Reid said.

April 10, 2008 in Veepstakes, Vote 2008: Democrats | Permalink | User Comments (21)

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Posted by: theodore johnston | Sep 30, 2008 10:04:32 AM

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