NYT/Reuters: Democrats Mull Trying to Cap Iraq Troops Levels

[DeepModem Mom]

Democrats Mull Trying to Cap Iraq Troops Levels
By REUTERS
Published: January 5, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Congress could possibly limit the number of U.S. troops in Iraq by forcing President George W. Bush to seek approval from lawmakers for additional deployments, a top Democratic senator said on Friday.

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin said that was just one of several options before Democrats, who took over control of both the House and Senate this week from Bush's Republicans.

Top Democrats, including Durbin, said the party would not seek to cut funding of troops already there because that could undermine their safety.

But with Bush considering an increase in the number of U.S. forces in Iraq, Durbin told reporters he and fellow Democrats have discussed trying to cap the number there as a potential option.

Asked how, Durbin said, "It could be legislation that requires the president to come for congressional approval for troops over a certain level.''...

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-iraq-democrats-durbin.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I smell a con crisis

we call it Signing Statement, and we all know george is fully capable

[illinoisprogressive]

2. I am thinking Senator Durbin is trying to find a way to block

bush totally. He voted against the war and hates it. he wants it over and the troops home.
Senator Durbin is a good guy.

[jarab]

3. Don't think it will work.

Troop level is probably an executive decision.
...O...

[Kagemusha]

4. Yeah, there's a valid constitutional argument there.

Congress is trying to find 50 different ways to weasel out of its only methods here: declaring peace somehow, and cutting off funds. Cutting off funds being the part that has direct consequences, unless of course Bush wants to defy that, too. After that the only option would be impeachment.

[cassiepriam]

5. Let's face it, we have a very bad govt system. Only works if the president is sane.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. What form of government DOES work when the leader is insane? n/t

[cassiepriam]

8. Not this one, the checks and balances don't work.

We need some sort of system were a mentally ill leader
can be replaced when necessary.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. That system exists.

The tools are there, in theory. The political will to use those tools is not, for various reasons.

[Peace Patriot]

6. What war? Is there a war? The Bush Junta is illegally OCCUPYING Iraq after

having illegally and without justification invaded it and slaughtered over 100,000 of its people. But there are no combat operations now. Bush declared them ended. "Mission Accomplished." So, under what law, rule or justification is Bush sending yet more troops into this country?

Bush had no right to be there in the first place. And he has no right to stay there now, and entrench himself with 15 permanent US bases, and send more troops to "defend" these illegal US bases in a foreign land. The whole thing is a house of cards.

I am VERY HAPPY to see Senator Durbin and others look for the way to stop this. SEVENTY PERCENT of the American people want this occupation ended, and our troops brought home. Bush is acting without the consent of the American people, and outside of even a Hitler-like phony legal framework. That is the essential problem here. Bush is a DICTATOR! He has established this in dozens of ways--including his recent "signing statement" that he can open our mail, overturning a bill passed by Congress (added to hundreds of other such signing statements). He is spying on us. He is torturing prisoners, and holding prisoners without trial for years. He has shredded our Constitution. And he is "sending" 30,000 MORE US troops into Iraq as a DICTATOR.

To our representatives in Congress: It's Magna Carta time!