Text 28562, 65 rader
Skriven 2007-05-04 05:04:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Clinton
===============
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0507/Clinton_calls_for_end_to_Ira
q_war_authorization.html


May 03, 2007

Clinton calls for end to Iraq war authorization


In her most dramatic statement on the Iraq war since officially entering 
the 2008 presidential race, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) called for 
ending the 2002 authorization resolution for the war.

Clinton joined with Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), a leading war opponent, 
in offering a proposal to "sunset" the 2002 use-of-force resolution by 
Oct. 11, 2007, the fifth anniversary of the Senate vote allowing 
President Bush to take military action against Saddam Hussein. Under the 
Byrd-Clinton plan, Bush would then have to return to Congress to seek 
new authority to conduct the war.

Clinton supported the 2002 resolution but has now turned against the 
war. Byrd was a vocal opponent of the war then and remains so to this 
day.

"The American people have called for change, the facts on the ground 
demand change, the Congress has passed legislation to require change," 
Clinton said on the Senate floor today. "It is time to sunset the 
authorization for the war in Iraq. If the president will not bring 
himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to 
him."

Byrd, in his own floor speech, said: "The 2002 authorization to use 
force has run its course. It is time, past time, to decommission this 
authorization and retire it to the archives. If the president has more 
that he wants to do in Iraq, then he needs to make that case to Congress 
and to the American public."

Byrd and Clinton have not formally introduced their new resolution yet, 
but are "speaking to a lot of senior members of the Armed Services 
Committee" before doing so, said Tom Gavin, Byrd's spokesman.

Clinton aides said the new proposal with Byrd was a "natural extension" 
of previous legislative measures she has introduced on Iraq, including 
S. 670, a Feb. 16 bill designed to limit U.S. troop levels in Iraq and 
terminates Bush's authority to continue the war unless the president 
formally certifies that certain political and security goals were met. 

The Clinton aides also noted that she voted in favor of a Byrd proposal 
in October 2002 limiting the authorization for military force in Iraq to 
one year. That proposal was defeated, and Clinton ended up voting in 
favor of a broader use-of-force resolution.

But with Bush's veto of the $124 billion Iraq funding bill on Tuesday, 
which included a timeline for withdrawing most U.S. troops from Iraq by 
March 31, 2008, Byrd and Clinton felt a renewed impetus to introduce 
their "sunset" proposal, which had been under discussion for several 
months.

"The White House seems to reject any attempt to change course in Iraq, 
and they seem to reject the will of the American people to bring this 
war to an end," said a Clinton aide, speaking on the condition of 
anonymity.

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