[Marxism] House passes bill banning permanent US military presence in Iraq

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

House passes Lee's bill barring permanent Iraq bases
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:07/25/2007 01:50:29 PM PDT
The House voted 399-24 today to pass Rep. Barbara Lee's bill to  
prevent creation of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq and to bar  
U.S. control of Iraqi oil.

Lee's HR 2929 was considered under suspension of the rules, which  
bars amendments, limits debate and requires a two-thirds vote for  
passage -- a sign that House Democratic leaders saw it not only as  
good policy, but as another tool putting Republicans on the spot to  
oppose a long-term presence in Iraq.

"Putting Congress on record with this clear statement helps take the  
targets off our troops' backs and it supports our goals of handing  
over responsibility for security and public safety to Iraqi forces,"  
Lee, D-Oakland, said on the House floor.

"We must soundly reject the vision of an open-ended occupation as bad  
policy that undermines the safety of our troops and recognize it for  
what it is: another recruiting poster for terrorists," she said.

All of the 24 nay votes were Republicans. House Minority Leader John  
Boehner, R-Ohio, voted for it but belittled it, too.

"Instead of wasting time with meaningless stunts and undermining our  
troops overseas through harmful rhetoric, members of Congress should  
be united and focused on preventing al Qaeda from establishing  
permanent bases in Iraq and using them to stage terrorist attacks  
against the United States and our allies," Boehner said.

" `No permanent bases' is already the policy of the United States,  
and there is no such thing as a `permanent' U.S. military base in  
foreign countries," Boehner added. "All U.S. military bases abroad  
are subject to cooperative agreements with the respective host  
countries. The agreements can be altered or eliminated at any time."

But House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo,  
was one of several speakers who noted on the House floor today that  
the Bush Administration "has drawn a parallel between our proposed  
sustained presence in Iraq and the U.S. obligation to South Korea  
after the Korean War.

"Mr. Speaker, we have been in South Korea for more than 54 years and  
I hope we won't be as long as that in Iraq," Lantos said. "The Korean  
peninsula over half a century was vital to our security interests  
during the Cold War. But Iraq is not Korea. It is now beyond question  
that our national security is being harmed -- not helped -- by our  
continuing vast footprint in Iraq."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said "the Democratic  
Congress will go on record -- every day if necessary -- to register a  
judgment in opposition to the course of action that the President is  
taking in Iraq" and to "fight for a redeployment of our forces as the  
central element of a new-direction strategy for Iraq."

Lee first introduced legislation to bar permanent bases in June 2005,  
and has led several efforts to attach base-related amendments to  
spending and authorization bills. The House passed her amendment  
barring permanent bases to the 2006 Iraq supplemental spending bill,  
but it was stripped out in conference committee. No-spending clauses  
were, however, written into this year's Defense Authorization bill,  
Defense Appropriations bill and Iraq supplemental, all of which  
became law. And the House already has passed similar amendments for  
next year's Defense Authorization bill and Foreign Operations  
Appropriations bill.

But spending bills expire, while the bill passed today effectively  
extends the ban indefinitely.

--Contact Josh Richman at jrichman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or 510-208-6428.  
Read the Political Blotter at www.ibabuzz.com/politics


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