CNN/AP: Democrats probe facts in Iraq

[PhilipShore]

January 26, 2007
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/26/iraq.pelosi.ap/

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Murtha, both Democrats and vocal war critics, were in the Iraqi capital at the head of a delegation of House members on a fact-finding mission as the White House and Congress dueled over the expansion of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Pelosi has been a sharp critic of the Bush administration's conduct of the war and has led a drive in U.S. Congress against sending 21,500 more troops as part of a new security crackdown in Baghdad.

In Washington on Friday, President George W. Bush challenged skeptical lawmakers not to prematurely condemn his buildup, saying "I'm the decision-maker."

Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Vietnam veteran, has been a longtime critic of the war.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. However are these countries going to take having someone with a real brain

coming to talk with them. It must be quite startling to them to see that not all americans are idiots like Rice and Bush.

[mike_c]

2. aheh, aheh....

He said "probe."

[billyoc]

3. Better tell the Iraqis that you're from

New Zealand or somewhere so they don't flee in terror.

[truthisfreedom]

4. Wow. He's already stamping his widdow foot.

bushboy's having a widdow tantrum.

[rodeodance]

5. "We come out of the meeting with a greater understanding of the others' point of view,"

The Pelosi delegation on Friday visited the heavily fortified Green Zone, site of the American Embassy, and met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"We come out of the meeting with a greater understanding of the others' point of view," Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in brief remarks after the meeting.

The delegation "stressed our belief that it is well past time for the Iraqis to take primary responsibility for the security of their nation," she said in a statement.

Pelosi also met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to discuss the security situation and the political process in Iraq as well as ways of making the government's national reconciliation plan a success, according to Talabani's office.