US House of Rep rejects calls for troops withdrawal from Iraq

PTI

Washington, Nov 19 (PTI) The US House of Representatives has spurned calls for an immediate pullout of US troops from Iraq, intensifying the political debate over the war.
The non-binding resolution failed by a 403 to 3 vote in the House chamber with lawmakers rushing home for a two week Thanksgiving break.

The House vote, even if it had been against the administration, would not have mattered much for it was a non- biding resolution to start with and then the Senate would have to agree to put any semblance of pressure on the White House.

Instead in a blunt show of partisan politics Republican lawmakers challenged a conservative Democratic colleagues' call that perhaps the troops ought to return home in six months.

The Resolution on the Iraq withdrawal was put forth by the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee Duncan Hunter.

"We are going to let every member answer that and I hope the message that goes back to our troops in Iraq...Is that we do not support a precipitous pullout", the Republican lawmaker said.

"To cut and run would invite terrorism into our backyards, and no one wants to see troops fighting terrorism on American soil," Speaker Dennis Hastert, after yesterday's emotionally charged vote.

White House has welcomed the House vote. "Congress in strong, bipartisan fashion rejected the call to cut and run," White House spokesman Scott McClellan, said a statement.

President George W Bush yesterday called for an immediate troop withdrawal "a recipe for disaster."

Don't pull US troops out of Iraq! We must stay until Insurgents surrender!!!

As president Bush put it this morning in Korea, the cut and run policy is a recipe for disaster!