CNN: Murtha to give Iraqi government 80 days to fulfill promises

[DeepModem Mom]

Monday, March 05, 2007
Murtha to give Iraqi government 80 days to fulfill promises

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Jack Murtha is expected to lay out his Iraq plan later this week to the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. James Moran, D-Virginia, told CNN Monday.

Murtha will propose initially giving Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki 80 days to "fulfill the promises" he made to the Bush Administration, Moran said. Namely, there must be fair sharing of Iraq's oil revenue between the three main ethnic groups, the Iraqi constitution must be approved, and there must be "sufficient security" in Baghdad.

Murtha's plan calls for redeploying U.S. troops during the subsequence six months after the 80 days expires if the Malaki government does not meet those benchmarks.

According to a Murtha aide, the Pennsylvania Democrat is also slated to make troop readiness issues integral to the supplemental and will insist on including language to restore combat readiness of U.S. forces to the highest level, ensure they train on the same equipment in the U.S. as they would be using in the field and allow troops a year in between tours.

Murtha also plans to include a presidential waiver in the supplemental appropriations bill, which would afford President Bush the prerogative to come back to Congress to ask for a waiver on the different restrictions proposed by Murtha.

Murtha included the waiver in hopes his plan will appeal to moderate Democrats and some Republicans -- despite an 80 day deadline for al-Malaki that many may object with....

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/03/murtha-to-give-iraqi-government-80.html