Posted on 04/05/2007 5:42:33 PM PDT by mdittmar
RENO, Nev. (AP) - President Bush would be to blame, not the Democrat-controlled Congress, if he vetoes a supplemental spending bill for U.S. troops because he has rejected repeated invitations to discuss a compromise, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.
"I'm a legislator, I know how to compromise. He doesn't. That's what he's got to learn," Reid, D-Nev., told The Associated Press.
"Compromise is not a bad word. I think it's been real hard for him to understand he can't do what he did before we had a new Congress in town," Reid said. "He's going to have to learn to deal with it."
Reid made the remarks after he met with a mixed reception at a veterans hospital where he took his plea for troop withdrawals by next fall and called the war in Iraq the "worst foreign policy blunder" in U.S. history.
"The training wheels have to come off and Iraq has got to police it's own civil war. We should not be policing a civil war," Reid told about 80 veterans, doctors and others at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Reno.
"People say if we leave Iraq it's going to be chaos," he said. "It's chaos right now. So whenever we leave, whether it is six days from now or six months from now - we know we'll be out of there in 20 months because that is when Bush is out of office - it is going to be chaos."
Two of the half-dozen or more skeptics in the audience offered pointed criticism of Reid, including one who said the senator's "irresponsible statements" are undermining U.S. troops.
"You are using this as a political football. It's not acceptable," said John Edwards, a veteran and member of a local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, whose national organization has called for Congress to approve funding for the Iraq war without what it called "an arbitrary withdrawal timeline."
Reid said he agrees the nation must make sure U.S. troops have "not died in vain in Iraq."
"Conversely, we have to tell it how it is. We can't paint a picture that doesn't exist," he said.
"Before we invaded, there was not a single terrorist in Iraq. I recognize Saddam Hussein was an evil man and I'm glad he's gone. But invading Iraq did not help the situation. It made it worse."
Reid said earlier he will propose legislation to cut off funds for combat operations, and provide money for only three missions: targeted counterterrorism operations, training and equipping the Iraqi security forces, and to provide security for U.S. personnel and infrastructure.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized the strategy Wednesday, saying such limits could pull troops from Baghdad neighborhoods, which have been the focus of the latest military buildup in Iraq.
"One real possibility is, if we abandon some of these areas and withdraw into the countryside or whatever to do these targeted missions, that you could have a fairly significant ethnic cleansing inside Baghdad or in Iraq more broadly," Gates said.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is among those who argue Congress has no business "micromanaging this war."
"Our troops are in Iraq fighting an enemy that wants to destroy our way of life, and setting a date for withdrawal would undermine our commanders," he said last week. "Victory is our only option."
Reid spoke and answered questions for about an hour and toured the VA facility.
"I say let's get out of there. Let's understand this war can only be won politically, diplomatically and economically."
Reid said Democrats continue to try to work with the president to avoid a second veto he has promised if another version of a supplemental spending bill has a timetable for withdrawing troops.
"If he does that, he's cutting off the funds to troops. We're not cutting off the funds to troops," Reid said.
"The president is a partner with us on what we do in Iraq whether he wants to be or not. We need to work with him and he needs to work with us."
Do what we want and you will be compromising.
The president should tell Reid to "go pound sand".
STFU traitor Reid.
Reid can taste the blood of dead Iraqi mothers and children already. What a ghoul.
Sorry Senator Reid,... it could well be you and your synchophants that learn a hard and painful lesson in Constitutional Presidential Authority in Time of War.
Reid needs to learn to keep his evil mouth shut!
You fund the troops, and I'll quit calling you a traitor. No pork, no extras, no timetable. Deal?
George.
Reid and the rest of the cowardly dims must learn to accept the fact that the Global War on Terror is not going away just because they want to claim that Iraq is not a part of it.
Cowardice in the face of the enemy.
compromise??? He means quit..
Compromise is not a bad word. Really? If Harry wants me to swallow an ounce of rat poison, yet I stubbornly refuse, compromise to 1/2 ounce is OK? This man is more foolish than I thought.
Dingy Harry Reid should go back to taking mob money and gambling license kickbacks in Las Vegas.
Dirty Harry Reid. The biggest recipient of funds from Jack Abramoff. Believer of land deals made WITHOUT a written document, long after giving uop his interest in the property IN writing.
Harry, your mom would be so proud. You followed in her footsteps.
Harry and Nancy are scared of someone standing up to the playground bullies. Bush knows that he has the people on his side and every poll will support him when he vetoes these traitorous bills. Nancy hasn’t helped her cause with this grandstanding in Syria. They have over played their hands and they are scared that they will be showed up.
It is delightful to see them caught in a trap of their own making. Someone “pass the pop corn, please”
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Here’s a good compromise. Reid can STFU, and President Bush can stop laughing at him.
What a hateful, little man, is Senator Reid.
How does Reid know that they were all married?
Seriesly, Searchlight is a complete idiot. That is just a ridiculous statement to make. We KNOW there were terrorists in Iraq -- and Germany, Britain, the USA, etc.
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