Anti-war Dems ponder bold action on Iraq

[cal04]

The closest thing Congress has to a peace movement — 71 liberals who want to yank Iraq funding and bring troops home swiftly — faces a dilemma: The lawmakers can back a Democratic plan they think is too weak, or they can block it and risk an embarrassing defeat for their cause.

It falls to one of their strongest allies, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. — whose San Francisco district is passionately against the war — to persuade them to accept a less aggressive stance.

Pelosi is working feverishly to scrounge together enough Democratic votes to pass a war-spending measure that would force the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq by 2008. Leaders circulated a draft Monday, and the House is set to weigh in on it as early as next week.

Many of the liberals, who sometimes refer to themselves as the "Out of Iraq" caucus, are adamantly opposed to the funding bill in any form. They argue it would prolong the war,and are angry that leading Democrats are not pushing for a quicker withdrawal.

"There's a significant number of people who are steadfast in not continuing this war, who absolutely don't want to fund the surge and who want to give a voice to the people who voted on Nov. 7 and asked us to end this once and for all," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., a leader of the Progressive Caucus.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070313/ap_on_go_co/iraq_liberals

[ourvoicescount]

1. Regardless of the means, we need to get them home as soon as possible.

[shance]

2. What "anti-war" Dems in Congress? Where are they?

All they do is continue to enable and fund the illegal war on the victims living in Iraq.

[Old and In the Way]

3. We need to go after the conservative Democrats in the primaries.

Obviously, some still don't get it.