The Costs in Iraq
| Rep. Watson: "According to General Petraeus, if we go forward with this war as the President wants us to, on average two US men and women will die every day. Another 15 will be wounded each day. And we will spend $300 million each and every day we are there. It seems these massive losses do not register with some of my Republican colleagues who continue to support an open-ended commitment in iraq. In fact, Republican Leader Boehner even said recently, when asked how much longer we stay in Iraq, that the sacrifice being made will be a small price. I don't think so, Madam Speaker." |
In a press conference today, Speaker Pelosi was asked about the insistence of Republicans on a 60 vote threshold for votes to stem the costs of the war:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi: When they implement the 60-vote rule, what they are saying is that you cannot debate this issue and bring it to a majority up or down vote in the Senate of the United States. That's undemocratic. I think the American people, the more they know about it, will be appalled by it and it will have its own dynamic.But when we are talking about an issue as personal as a vote on the war, as important a vote as it is to the country, for the Republicans in the Senate to insist that they will have a barrier - but you know they are not just protecting themselves from having a vote. That 60-vote barrier is the gate around the President's desk. It is a vote to protect him from unpleasant vetoes. It is a vote to protect him from a definition of who is for a 10-year war or more at full strength in Iraq as the President is proposing, or those on the Democratic side who are espousing a responsible redeployment out of Iraq so that we can address the readiness needs of our military, so that we can focus on the real war on terror, and redeployment would help us do that.
So this is because they don't want the American people to see the distinction, and nothing defines the distinction better than a veto - or a signature as the case may be. So the choice is stick with the President and now the Republicans in the Senate have aligned themselves with him very closely for a 10-year or longer commitment to a war without end, as opposed to a responsible redeployment out of Iraq which has bipartisan support in both Houses of the Congress, and certainly among the American people.