John Cornyn: “I wish to point out some of the bitter ironies of this debate. Since roughly January, when the new majority took charge…”

“I wish to point out some of the bitter ironies of this debate. Since roughly January, when the new majority took charge of this Congress, there have been numerous proposals with regard to how we should conduct ourselves in Iraq. I have tried to keep track of the various resolutions that have been proposed and, as my colleagues can see, there have been, according to my count, at least 17 resolutions. They start with the Biden and Levin resolutions, the Reid-Pelosi resolution, the Murtha resolution, the Biden-Levin resolution, the Conrad funding cut resolution, a waiver plan, a timeline plan, the Feingold resolution, the Obama resolution, the Clinton resolution, the Dodd resolution, the Kennedy resolution, the Feinstein resolution, the Byrd resolution, the Kerry resolution, and then the latest, the Reid resolution we are on today. Under this current iteration before the Senate, it says: The President shall commence the phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this joint resolution, with the goal of redeploying by March 31, 2008, all U.S. combat forces from Iraq, except for a limited number that are essential for the following purposes: protecting U.S. and coalition personnel and infrastructures, training and equipping Iraqi forces, and conducting targeted counterterrorism operations.”