Vol. 71/No. 22      June 4, 2007

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Democrat from Maryland, said Congress might work through the weekend to pass a bill that Bush could sign by Memorial Day.

"We don't have a veto-proof Congress," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada.

"The president has made it very clear that he is not going to sign timelines," said Hoyer.

To keep up the Democrats' "antiwar" façade, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is unlikely to vote for the bill.

The bill provides the administration with funding for the wars but includes a range of "benchmarks" that the Iraqi government should meet to continue receiving U.S. reconstruction aid.

At the same time, the bill authorizes the president to spend the funds regardless of whether Baghdad meets the benchmarks.

In Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi government troops are preparing to push deeper into Sadr City, a largely Shiite working-class section of Baghdad, to keep up pressure on Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. Sadr's forces, which hold 30 seats in the Iraqi parliament, have been a primary target of the U.S.-led crackdown in Baghdad targeting militias linked to Shiite and Sunni capitalists competing for control of Iraq's resources.

The U.S. military is involved in negotiations to clear the way for a gradual push into Sadr City in coming weeks, reported the May 22 Washington Post. But if political options are exhausted the Pentagon has alternate plans, including a possible frontal assault.

According to the Post, the U.S. military has in place a "second Fallujah plan," which it is not prepared to use now. This is referring to the massive U.S. ground and air assault in 2004 on supporters of Saddam Hussein's Baath party in the largely Sunni Anbar province.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home