Senate Considers Future of Iraq

By Helen

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has scheduled an all-night session to attempt to pass a Democratic plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq. This plan, co-sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Rep. Jack Reed (D-RI) would begin the withdrawal in 120 days, and would require complete withdrawal from Iraq by April 2008. Last week, the House passed a similar bill. President Bush has threatened to veto the Levin-Reed amendment if it is passed.

Mr. Reid has scheduled this session on Tuesday night in hope that more moderate Republicans will agree to vote for this amendment. Normally, a simple majority of 51 senators would be required to pass this amendment, but the Republicans have used the tactic of a filibuster to make it so that 60 senator’s votes are needed to pass the amendment. Three Republicans have already given their support to the Levin-Reed plan, and a fourth has said that she is considering doing the same.

If the Levin-Reed plan fails to get the support necessary, there are two more plans scheduled to be voted on this week. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Sen. John Warner (R-VA) have co-sponsored a plan to begin troop withdrawal by the end of this year. Neither the White House nor the Democrats are happy with this plan. President Bush wants to wait for a progress report on Iraq that will be released on September 15th, and Democrats criticize the plan because it offers no concrete date for complete troop withdrawal.

The third plan scheduled to be voted on this week would implement the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. This plan would reassign many US troops to train Iraqi soldiers, and would encourage more diplomacy with the countries that border Iraq.

Sources:
BBC.com
CNN.com