WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- A draft of a Democratic-sponsored supplemental bill in the U.S. House of Representatives calls for the withdrawal of some troops from Iraq by September 2008.
They could be required to be withdrawn by March 2008 if the Iraqi government does not meet certain benchmarks, according to the legislation.
A partial copy of the House Appropriations Committee defense supplemental spending bill for 2008 was obtained by Talkingpointsmemo.com, a liberal political blog. The bill is not expected to be released by the committee until Thursday, according to a committee spokesman.
The posted pages require the president to certify by Oct. 1, 2007 that the Iraqi government has enacted a broadly accepted plan to share oil revenues equitably across the country; that it has reformed its de-Ba'athification laws and the constitution, that it has begun to spend $10 billion of its own money on reconstruction, and that it has provided sufficient forces for the Baghdad security plan, among other conditions. If those conditions are met, U.S. troops would begin being withdrawn in March 2008, with most to be redeployed to their home bases within 180 days.
If those benchmarks are not met by October 2007, the redeployment of U.S. troops would begin then and would be completed in six months, according to the draft.
Thereafter, the only troops allowed to remain would be those assigned to training Iraqi forces, conducting counter-terrorist operations or protecting American diplomatic facilities. Exactly how many troops would qualify under those categories and how many would be withdrawn is unclear.
The bill is both meant to placate the growing number of Americans who oppose the war and to pressure the Iraqi government to make the political and economic reforms necessary to win over the Iraqi people.
On Tuesday, House Republicans assailed the plan as "micromanagement" of the war
"We cannot leave our troops vulnerable to the whims of armchair generals in Congress," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.
