Democrats Unite on Iraq Withdrawal Demands

By Bill Brubaker
Washington Post

Twelve Democratic leaders of the House and Senate have urged President Bush in a strongly worded letter to begin withdrawing the 130,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by year's end, a sign that Democrats may be uniting on a key election-year issue that has divided the party.

"U.S. troops and taxpayers continue to pay a high price as your Administration searches for a policy" in Iraq, said the letter, signed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), and 10 other party leaders.

"Over 2,500 Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice and over 18,000 others have been wounded," the letter said. "The Iraq war has also strained our military and constrained our ability to deal with other challenges."

Bush's "open-ended commitment" to Iraq should be abandoned, the letter asserted, in the interest of "American national security, our troops, and our taxpayers."

The three-year-old war has cost the United States more than $300 billion so far, and the tab is growing by $3 billion every week, the Democratic leaders wrote.

"We believe that a phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq should begin before the end of 2006," the letter said.

(There is more.)