Washington, D.C. – 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.
Twenty-nine out of forty-nine members of the Democratic caucus present and voting – 59 percent – voted for the Feingold amendment. This is significant progress from the vote on June 22, 2006 on a Kerry-Feingold-Boxer amendment mandating that troop withdrawal from Iraq be completed by July 1, 2007. That effort received only 13 votes in favor.
In a clear demonstration of American voters’ overwhelming opposition to the war, every Democratic senator running for president – Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and Obama – voted for the Feingold amendment.
JOHN ISAACS, Executive Director of Council for a Livable World, said: “The presidential candidates have correctly recognized that withdrawing from Iraq sooner rather than later reflects the consensus view of both policy experts and the American electorate.�
ISAACS continued: “Strong disapproval of the war is spreading from the people to Congress. By September or October, there may be a veto-proof majority – including many Republicans – ready to call it quits in Iraq.�
