The United States Senate is expected to deal, this week, with a resolution similar to one approved narrowly by the U.S. House last week – a resolution setting a timetable and a date for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) says he will continue to fight any effort that will tip America’s hand to the enemy in Iraq.
The resolution approved by the House calls for most U.S. troops to be out of Iraq by April of next year. The Senate is going to take up an amendment to a spending authorization bill that would set the same April, 2008, troop withdrawal deadline.
Bond says if al-Qaida is made aware of America’s strategies, the terrorists will sit back and wait for the opportunity to take control of Iraq and use the country as a safe haven from which to launch their attacks against the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Bond does not believe supporters of the withdrawal proposal will have the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster. He adds even if the cloture effort is successful the President will veto it and the votes do not exist in the Senate and House to override the veto.