US House again rejects quick Iraq withdrawal

Sunni Arab supporters of the Iraqi National Concord Front parade brandishing posters of list of candidates on the streets of Baquba, north of Baghdad, yesterday. Leader of the National Concord Front, Adnan al-Dulaimi, called for a coalition to protect national unity in a new parliament as he thanked insurgents for not attacking polling stations during the landmark election.. PHOTO: AFP

Democrats said Republicans had used a resolution meant to congratulate Iraq for this week's elections as a means to try to divide Democrats and lash out at critics of President George W. Bush's war policies.

The House passed the measure 279-109, with 59 Democrats joining Republicans to vote for it. Two Republicans and 32 Democrats voted present.

Republicans have sought to highlight divisions among Democrats over the war since Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a leading Democrat hawk, stunned his colleagues by calling for the withdrawal of US troops within six months.

Murtha said US forces had become targets of the insurgency in a conflict bungled by the Bush administration.

Most Democrats, particularly in the Senate, are calling on Bush to set out benchmarks for withdrawing troops, but not for a quick withdrawal or a definite timetable.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said the resolution used "what should be a cause for celebration as instead a means to denounce those who disagree ... and also to insist that if you want to congratulate the people of Iraq, you must support the status quo."

Tom DeLay of Texas, who stepped down as Republican leader after being charged in September with conspiracy and money laundering, condemned war critics who "point to the war's costs, its difficulties and our setbacks and despite the catastrophic consequences of failure, call for an immediate retreat and surrender."

The resolution called this week's parliamentary elections "a crucial victory for the Iraqi people," and expressed "unshaking confidence" that US and Iraqi forces "shall achieve victory."

It said "setting an artificial timetable" to withdraw US forces "or immediately terminating their deployment in Iraq and redeploying them elsewhere in the region, is fundamentally inconsistent with achieving victory in Iraq."

Democrats had tried to substitute a resolution just to congratulate Iraqis on their election and commend US and Iraqi forces, but Republican leaders rejected that.

Meanwhile, the main Arab Sunni alliance that contested Iraq's election said on Saturday it was a success despite some violations, fuelling US hopes that peaceful politics will help pave the way for a troop withdrawal.

"The election process succeeded ... Thank God there were only a few cases in a huge country where there is death and violence.," Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of one of the parties in the Iraqi Accordance Front, told a news conference.