Senator Carl Levin, so-called "moderate Democrat" senator from Michigan, once agains proves that the AIPAC Senators are far and away THE MOST VALUABLE Bush-Cheney unlimited war powers supporters in all of America.
More so than Rupet Murdoch and the right-wing corporate media..
More so than corporate America and the war industrial complex....
More so than the Right-Wing Protestant fundamentalists pro-war organizations
(Pat Robertson, Bob Jones University, the organizations left behind by Rev. Kennedy and Jerry Falwell).....
More so than the Republican Party...
When looking for the TRUE HARD CORE of SUPPORT for Bush-Cheney UNLIMITED WAR POWERS and ever-expanding wars, ONE NEED LOOK NO FURTHER than JOE LIEBERMAN, DIANNE FEINSTEIN, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (on the House Judiciary Commitee), and now CARL LEVIN joins his fellow AIPAC WAR-LOBBY UBER ALLES "Democratic" sell-out compatriots, who SEEK OUT DEMOCRATIC VOTES, campaign donations, and support, BUT THEN, WHEN it most counts, COME OUT AND VOTE to give Bush and Cheney EVER MORE WAR POWERS AND FUNDING.
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Archbishop of Canterbury: US 'is worse than the British Empire at its peak'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=496299&in_page_id=1770
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Levin Says Democrats Won't Block Iraq Troop Funding
By Tina Seeley
Nov. 25 2007
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aEF6zN0Rnkas&refer=us
(Bloomberg) -- Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said Democrats won't cut funding for U.S. troops in Iraq even as attempts to set a goal for a withdrawal are blocked by Republicans.
``We're going to fund the troops,'' Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said today on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program. ``No one's trying to undercut the military.''
Two Republican supporters of the current strategy in the war, Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona, accused Democrats of ignoring military commanders and the success brought about by the addition of about 30,000 U.S. troops earlier this year.
Democrats on Nov. 16 fell seven votes short of the 60 necessary to move forward with a $50 billion funding measure that would have set goals for removing U.S. troops from Iraq. With President George W. Bush threatening to veto any legislation that would put restrictions on the U.S. presence there, Democratic leaders said they may wait until next year to act on military funding requests. Bush is seeking about $190 billion to pay for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Levin said Senate Republicans opposed to setting any troop withdrawal goal are sending ``exactly the wrong message to the leaders of Iraq, that somehow or other, we're not going to put pressure on them to do what they promised to do.''
Setting Conditions
Graham, interviewed on the same program, disagreed.
``I cannot tell you how infuriating it is for me to sit here and listen to Congress trying to undercut a military commander and strategy that's produced results that are the precondition for reconciliation,'' Graham said.
McCain, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said the U.S. is succeeding militarily in Iraq and that is helping the Iraqi political process.
``There is progress politically. There is a process of reconciliation,'' McCain said on ABC's ``This Week.''
The New York Times reported today that the Bush administration has scaled back its goals for progress from the Iraqi government. Some major benchmarks, such as passage of an oil-revenue sharing plan, may be pushed back, the Times reported, citing unidentified administration officials.
McCain said the Iraqi government may be able to approve legislation that would allow the return of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to government posts and hold provincial elections by the early part of 2008.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said there has ``been no political progress'' in Iraq.
U.S. Withdrawal
``The best way to achieve a political solution in Iraq is to withdraw our forces,'' Richardson said on ABC. ``Our troops have become targets.''
Under a plan put forward by Army General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, about 5,700 American combat troops are scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of the year. As many as 30,000 forces may be pulled out by the middle of 2008, leaving about the same number of U.S. troops in the country -- 130,000 -- that were there before Bush announced the deployment of additional combat units earlier this year to quell violence in Baghdad and western provinces.
As security has improved in the country over the past several months, about 1,500 Iraqis are returning daily from neighboring Syria alone, while another 500 leave Iraq for Syria, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. At the same time, the UN agency said Nov. 23 on its Web site that it isn't time yet to promote a large-scale return of displaced Iraqis because parts of the country remain volatile.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net .
