U.S. Senate Democrats retool Iraq strategy

WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Democrats launched a new volley of restrictive amendments to the Iraq war-funding bill to pressure U.S. President George Bush.

Speaking to reporters late Tuesday when the three amendments were introduced, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said pressure to rein in the war effort would persist despite an earlier failure when Bush vetoed a bill that contained a withdrawal timeline.

"We raised the bar too high," Reid said. "They thought we could continue to send the bill back to the president with 49 (guaranteed) votes -- we couldn't do that."

The amendments include one that mandates the start of a troop withdrawal from Iraq within 120 days of passage, the second would set strong troop readiness standards and ensure a minimum period between Iraq deployments, and the third would block spending on a future military presence in Iraq after April 2008 except for troops on counter-terrorism and training missions, The Hill reported.