Council for a Livable World

The House of Representatives today retained funding cuts to provocative missile defense program and new nuclear weapons in the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Authorization bill. The House rejected two missile defense amendments, one to restore the cuts of $764 million made in the House Armed Services Committee and the other to cut an even larger amount of funding.

Senate Democrats showed growing support today for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq as 29 Senators voted for an amendment by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) that would have begun redeploying American soldiers within 120 days with a mandatory date for completing withdrawal by March 31, 2008.

The anti-war movement continued to gain ground this week as the House of Representatives conducted two important votes on the Iraq War. These votes reflect the American public’s widespread opposition to the war. According to a CNN poll released this week, Americans favor a timeline for withdrawal 57 to 41 percent.

Four years after boastfully declaring that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, President Bush is set to veto a $124 billion Supplemental Appropriations bill that would bring American soldiers home. This press release includes retired Generals comparing the Iraq conflict to Vietnam and Afghanistan and an updated analysis of war casualties, costs, terrorism levels, and troop levels.

The vote on the Fiscal 2007 Supplemental Appropriations Conference Report will be difficult for those who would like to see an early end to the war. A number of Representatives voted for the bill the first time with substantial misgivings. Now the House language on Iraq has been weakened to accommodate the very narrow majority in the Senate.