Mike Levin: “I want to review the outcome of last evening's debate and vote on the Iraq amendment that I offered along with Senators…”

“I want to review the outcome of last evening's debate and vote on the Iraq amendment that I offered along with Senators Reed, Voinovich, Hagel, Snowe, Reid, Smith, and Salazar. The amendment expressed the sense of the Congress that the missions of the U.S. forces in Iraq should transition to counterterrorism operations, and training, equipping, and supporting Iraqi forces, as well as force protection, and that--and this is, perhaps, the most critical, the important part of the amendment we voted on--that it should be the goal to complete that transition by the end of 2008. The vote on our amendment was 50 yeas and 45 nays. Legislating on Iraq is a difficult matter because of the need to gain 60 votes in order to overcome a filibuster, and it was made perhaps even more difficult last night because the Republican leader stated that the President would veto the Consolidated Appropriations Act if it contained our amendment. Now, imagine that. The President of the United States would veto funds for the troops if 60 or more Senators simply expressed their nonbinding opinion that a goal should be to bring most of our troops home by the end of next year. I would hope the President would welcome at least the nonbinding advice of the Congress and not threaten funding for the troops if that advice were forthcoming.”