Feingold to Bush: Get our troops out

Just one day after President George W. Bush announced the deployment of 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wis., proposed Congressional intervention using "the power of the purse."

In a Jan. 11 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Feingold criticized the Bush administration's new strategy and asked Congress to use its financial capabilities to restrict the war's funding.

Feingold has long been one of the nation's most outspoken critics against the war in Iraq and has consistently introduced legislation for a withdrawal timetable of troops. Earlier this year, he promised to draft legislation to the 110th Congress that would redeploy troops from Iraq to other parts of the world.

"Congress must bring an end to what has been one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in the history of our nation," Feingold said in a statement shortly after the president's Jan. 10 address. "It is time to bring our troops out of Iraq and refocus on defeating the global terrorist networks that threaten this country."

In an e-mail to The Badger Herald, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said she supports Feingold's call to restrict the war's funding.

"The power of the purse strings is the only means Congress has to end this misguided war," Baldwin said. "Certainly that will be in the forefront of our minds when the president sends us his next request for funding."

Baldwin also said in a statement that she supports a measure by U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., that calls for Congressional approval of any escalation of the war and a specific plan for a phased withdrawal of American forces.

U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., expressed sincere confidence in the president's new strategy in a Jan. 10 statement, calling it "the first step to removing our soldiers from Iraq, and bringing them back home for good."

The president hopes his strategy of increasing American forces in Baghdad and the Anbar province -- the "home base for al-Qaida" -- will place continued pressure on Iraqi insurgents.

"If we increase our support at this crucial moment and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home," Bush said, according to a transcript released by the White House.

Bush also called on the Iraqi government to uphold its key benchmarks this year, including provincial elections, shared oil revenues with civilians, $10 billion on infrastructure and the responsibility of securing all provinces by November.

More so than in previous announcements, Bush also conceded the failures of past strategies.

"The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people, and it is unacceptable to me," Bush said. "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me."

by Keegan Kyle Badger Herald Friday, January 19, 2007