White House rejects call for Iraq pullout

Reuters
White House rejects call for Iraq pullout
Thu Jun 16, 2005 10:11 PM ET

By Steve Holland and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Critics of the Iraq war proposed a congressional resolution on Thursday calling for a U.S. troop withdrawal in a reflection of growing American unease, but the White House and the Pentagon rejected the idea.

The resolution, backed by North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones and Hawaii Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie, calls for the Bush administration to develop a plan by the end of this year to pull out all American troops from Iraq and to begin the withdrawal by Oct. 1, 2006.

Jones said U.S. forces had removed Saddam Hussein, given Iraqis a chance at democracy and were training their military.

"After they're trained, what else should the goals be? Do we want to be there for 20 years or 30 years?" he said.

The resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives as White House aides said President Bush planned a more determined effort to defend the Iraq war amid growing public doubts.

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said setting a withdrawal date would send the wrong message to Iraqi insurgents.

"This message would say to the terrorists: 'All you have to do is wait until that day when our troops leave and then you can start carrying out those attacks and just hold out."' he said.


The resolution is not expected to get far in the Republican-led Congress, which, although critical of aspects of the war, has supported the president's efforts.

About two-dozen House Democrats held their own hearing on a British government memo that said that by July 2002 U.S. intelligence was being "fixed" around a policy that would inevitably lead to war with Iraq. U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003.

"If these disclosures are true ... they establish a prima facie case of going to war under false pretenses," said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, who led the forum.

Conyers showed up at the gates of the White House with several other members of Congress to deliver the signatures of 122 congressional Democrats and 560,000 citizens on petitions seeking a response on the memo.

"We want an answer to our letter and if we have to send him 1 million signatures or 10 million, we're going to keep collecting them," said Conyers, who asked to deliver the bundles of documents in person but was told by White House staff members to pass them through the gate.

Dozens of protesters shouted "Let Conyers in" as they carried signs that said: ""Bushame on you. You lied, they died."

THE PENTAGON AND THE PUBLIC

At the Pentagon, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the military's Joint Staff, also did not support a deadline and expressed disappointment over opinion polls showing waning American support for the U.S. presence in Iraq.

Bush is facing some of the most pessimistic views on Iraq since launching the war two years ago. A new CBS/New York Times poll said 60 percent of Americans thought things were going badly for the United States in Iraq rather than well. Fifty-one percent now think the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, the poll found.

Bush's job approval rating was just 42 percent, down from a 51 percent rating in the aftermath of the November election, according to the poll of 1,111 people conducted in the past week. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Bush will host Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari at the White House on June 24 and deliver a speech about Iraq on June 28 to mark the first anniversary since the transfer of sovereignty from a U.S.-led coalition to Iraqis.

The Bush administration has offered a conflicting picture of events in Iraq.

Vice President Dick Cheney asserted recently that the Iraqi insurgency, which is killing dozens of people daily with brazen suicide attacks, was in its "last throes." Bush has offered a more sober picture while stressing progress is being made. (Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Charles Aldinger)