Talent and Bond Vote with Majority in Rejecting Iraq Pullout Timetable

Two proposals dealing with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq have gone down to defeat in the U.S. Senate. One would have required what was called a “redeployment” of troops starting immediately and to be completed by July 1st of next year. The second urged President Bush to begin pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq this year but did not set a deadline. Senators Jim Talent and Kit Bond sided with the majority in both votes. Talent says these votes send a clear message that the U.S. will not, in his words, cut and run. Talent says that when he hears people use the word “redeployment,” in this context, it is another term for a pullout.