It is refreshing that the House has finally voted that the US will have no permanent bases in Iraq (after the Bush Administration has wasted billions building them) and has no designs on Iraqi oil (after the Bush Administration went to war to get it). The neocons must be furious that their little mideast adventure is coming to a close. Bush is just trying to ride it out to the end so he can say he "stayed the course" whereas all he's really done is bankrupt the US in a fruitless adventure.
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to bar permanent US military bases in Iraq, in the latest bid by Democrats to trim White House options on the war.
Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee, who wrote the bill, said it made clear the United States did not intend to keep an "open-ended" presence in Iraq and had no designs on the war-torn nation's oil riches.
"Putting Congress on record with this clear statement helps take the targets off our troops' backs and it support our goals of handing over responsibility for security and public safety to Iraqi forces," she said.
"We may disagree on many things about Iraq, but I hope we can agree that an endless occupation is not the answer," Lee said.
Democrats saw the bill as an attempt to ensure that the administration cannot keep a decades-long troop garrison in Iraq, similar to the tens of thousands of US troops stationed in South Korea since the Korean war.
The bill passed by 399 votes to 24 as most Republicans also backed it, despite many Bush supporters deriding the vote as purely symbolic.
Senator Joe Biden ws responsible for the amendment regarding the oi. According to ThinkProgress:
Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed an amendment to the Iraq supplemental spending bill proposed by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) that would require the Bush administration not to use any appropriated funds for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq. The amendment also called for the U.S. not exercise control over Iraqi oil. Biden’s amendment reads as follows:
To provide that no funds made available by title I of this Act may be made available to establish permanent United States military bases in Iraq or to exercise control by the United States over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq.
Earlier this year, the House passed an amendment offered by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) that similarly stated no funds should be used for permanent base construction.
Congress has now spoken with a clear and unambiguous voice a time when there are troubling signs that the administration wants to make the U.S. presence permanent in Iraq. For example, the administration is currently constructing a $592 million U.S. embassy in Baghdad that spans the size of 80 football fields.
Will this be yet another law that the administration chooses to ignore
Seeing that the goals of the Bush Administration and the neocons were to make Iraq a base of operations for the US in the mideast and through Production Sharing Agreements give lucrative contracts for Iraqi oil to western oil companies, this bill goes to the heart of the Bushies' and neocons' plans. Since they don't have the votes to actually get the troops out of Iraq at this time, this is an excellent bill since it brings to light the real reasons the US is in Iraq. Now they need to reduce the size of that ridiculous, humungous US Embassy in Iraq (really Occupation HQ) to normal proportions.
The Washington Post said:
House Bill Bars Permanent Bases in Iraq
Thursday, July 26, 2007; Page A14
The House overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday that would bar the establishment of permanent military bases in Iraq and the use of federal dollars to exercise control over Iraqi oil resources.
The measure, passed 399 to 24, was part of a barrage of Iraq bills scheduled for this month and designed to raise pressure on Republicans to break with President Bush on the war.
Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, said that next week he will offer an amendment to the annual defense spending bill demanding that troop withdrawals begin this fall. The amendment would not set a final date for the withdrawal of troops, a change from past Democratic efforts that Murtha predicted will attract Republicans.
"The Democratic Congress will go on record -- every day, if necessary -- to register a judgment in opposition to the course of action that the president is taking in Iraq," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said.
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) decried the bases bill as a "meaningless stunt" before he and 171 other Republicans voted for it. No Democrats opposed the measure.
-- Jonathan Weisman
