Michigan Democratic Party Senator Carl Levin and Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed formally announced yesterday that he is introducing a proposal aimed at removing troops from Iraq by April 30, 2008. The so-called Levin-Reed Amendment, was co-sponsored by Democratic Senators John Kerry (ME), Joe Biden (DE), Barrack Obama (IL), and Hillary Clinton (NY), as well as Republican Senators Gordon Smith (OR), Chuck Hagel (NE), and Olymia Snowe (ME).
The legislation--offered as an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill--calls for the United States to begin withdrawing soldiers from Iraq within 120 days of passage. The bill further calls for a deadline of April 30, 2008 for a significant number of US soldiers to be removed from Iraq. Senator Levin criticized the United States' occupation of Iraq, stating in a news release that "the open-ended occupation of a Muslim country by western countries has played into the hands of Al Qaeda." However, Levin's legislation would maintain this occupation for nine more moths, while also allowing an unknown number of soldiers to remain for "specified limited missions" including "counterterrosim" and protecting United States' infrastructure after the April 30, 2008 "deadline." Recent estimates have suggested that the United States' war on Iraq, which has killed at least 655,000 civilians, may be killing 10,000 Iraqis per month.
As he has in the past, Senator Levin again used his legislation to advocate for United States-imposed "benchmarks" arguing that "there is too little pressure on Iraqi leaders to do what they have to do." Levin's news release announcing the amendment said:
If there is any hope of forcing the Iraqi political leaders to take responsibility for their own country, it is to have a timetable for the reduction of American forces and the redeployment of those forces to more limited support missions, instead of being everybody's target in the middle of a civil war. Passage of this bipartisan amendment will hopefully prod the Iraqi government to reach a political settlement, which everybody agrees is necessary to end the violence.
Levin further argued that "without setting a date to begin a phased reduction of troops and a phased redeployment of troops there is much too little pressure on the Iraqi leaders to do what only they can do: which is to work out a political settlement." There was no discussion about whether the United States has the legal authority to impose its "benchmarks" on Iraq.
The Levin-Reed amendment, despite gaining more support in recent days, will likely face a difficult battle in the Senate. Already, Republicans have vowed to block Levin's amendment. Yesterday Republicans blocked an amendment designed to give troops serving in Iraq additional rest between tours by refusing to end debate on the amendment.
