The CNN article reports that President Bush is preparing to veto the Iraq withdrawal bill that was passed by the Senate. The bill sets a deadline for withdrawal of U. S. troops from Iraq by April 2008. The article states that the 51 Senate votes that passed the bill fall well below the 67 votes that are required to override a veto, which President Bush says he will quickly deliver with certainty.
The article quotes Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid, as saying that the bill calls for continued funding of the war, but merely acknowledges that the war needs a political solution, rather than a military solution. The article also provides a counterargument from Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader. McConnell’s argument is that U. S. commanders are claiming progress in pacifying Baghdad, and forcing the withdrawal of U. S. troops would ultimately hand the victory over to al-Qaeda. McConnell further states that without a military victory, there can be no political solution.
Independent Senator Lieberman condemned the bill, calling it a guarantee of failure in the war in Iraq as well as a loss of our hope for future security in the Middle East. Senator Kennedy argued that the bill would encourage the Iraquis to take responsibility for their future by indicating that the US will not police Iraq indefinitely. Finally, the article closes with a statement by General Petraeus stating that there is incremental improvement in the war and the US may experience more casualties before things begin to get better.
Senator Feingold stated that Petraeus would have funding as long as Congress feels there is a need for a mission, and that there doesn’t seem to be a need for a mission beyond April 2008. The BBC article reports that the Senate has decided to support U. S. troop withdrawal from Iraq in defiance of the veto threat. The article describes the Senate vote as one of the boldest challenge yet to the Bush Administration’s handling of the war.
According to the BBC, the bill approves $122 million in funds and orders President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq within 120 days of passage of the bill. The bill sets a goal of complete removal of troops by the end of March 2008, but does not explicitly demand removal. The article notes that the votes in the House and the Senate indicate that Congress will not be able to override the veto. However, the article goes on to say that the fact that both houses were able to agree on a deadline constitutes the greatest challenge to Congress has mounted to Bush’s war policy.
Last, the article states that the Republicans lost control of both houses in the December 2006 election, and that Congress immediately wrote a letter of blame to President Bush. The letter stated that while Congress was ready to work with Bush, he remains unwilling to work with Congress to come to a solution for the war. While both media sources describe the Senate’s passage of the troop withdrawal bill, the CNN article seems to describe the event from the viewpoint that the bill will face certain defeat by President Bush.
The CNN article quotes Democratic Senators as their reasons for passing the bill; however, unlike the BBC article, the CNN article also quotes Republican views on why the bill would be a detriment to policy regarding the war in Iraq. The BBC article focuses on the bill’s passage as an act of defiance, and the article seems to imply that in general, the members in Congress are of the same opinion, and it does not focus on the views of the majority of Republicans in Congress.
The BBC article also seems to give the Democrats a somewhat dominant portrayal in its description of how the Democrats took control in December. The article makes it seem as if the Republican members are greatly outnumbered, when the difference between the numbers of members from each party is only slight. Overall, the CNN article seems to be written from a slightly anti-withdrawal, and perhaps a pro Bush administration perspective, while the BBC article appears to be written from a pro-withdrawal, anti Bush point of view.