House Opens Iraq Debate

The House of Representatives began an emotional debate Tuesday on whether President Bush's decision to add more U.S. troops to the nearly four-year-old war in Iraq is a mistake that has to be reversed.

Democrats won control of Congress in last November's elections and were determined to pass a resolution disapproving of the president's decision to deploy more than 20,000 additional combat troops.

"The American people have lost faith in President Bush's course of action in Iraq and they are demanding a new direction," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

All 435 members get five minutes each to have their say, and the resolution will likely pass by Friday, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. The only real question is how many Republicans will vote for it.

The measure was nonbinding, but, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss, at no time in recent history has Congress formally voted "no confidence" in a president's military orders.

"No more blank checks for President Bush on Iraq," Pelosi declared.

Countered White House press secretary Tony Snow: "Members of the House and members of the Senate have the freedom to go ahead and write their resolutions and do what they want with them. The one thing we do expect is, we do expect those who say they're going to support the troops, to support them."

Republicans, in the minority for the first time in 12 years, issued emotional warnings of the consequences of undermining the president's policies in Iraq. "We will embolden terrorists in every corner in the world. We will give Iran free access to the Middle East," said Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. "And who doesn't believe the terrorists will just follow our troops home?"

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Read the House resolution on Iraq

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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., insisted that the Democrats had no intention of impeding the mission of those in Iraq. "There will be no defunding of troops in the field. There will be no defunding which will cause any risk to the troops," he said at a news conference.

The House rejected, on a 227-197 vote, a Republican procedural attempt to force a vote on a proposal that would have barred Congress from cutting off funding for American troops in harm's way.

Democrats expressed confidence the measure would prevail and said they would attempt to use it as the opening move in a campaign to pressure Mr. Bush to change course and end U.S. military involvement in the war. More than 3,100 U.S. troops have died in nearly four years of fighting and so have tens of thousands of Iraqis.

A new CBS News poll shows that while most Americans (63 percent) are opposed to sending more troops to Iraq, they are evenly split over whether Congress should pass a nonbinding resolution against the president's plan: 44 percent said they'd like to see it passed, 45 percent are against it.

Senate efforts last week to debate Iraq foundered when Democrats and Republicans couldn't agree on what they would vote on, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tueday he still hoped to revive the issue and that the House language could be a model. "We support the troops, oppose the surge, perfect," Reid said, summarizing the House resolution.

In the House, Democrats called on several newcomers who served in the military to make their argument against further commitments in Iraq.

Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Democrat and a captain in the Army's 82nd Airborne, said that "three years after I left Iraq, Americans are still running convoys up and down Ambush Alley and securing Iraqi street corners."

But Rep. David Dreier, a Republican, stressed that "we go to war to win, we go to war with a mission." He said "we dishonor the lives of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice if we in fact abandon that mission. .... We have a duty to pursue nothing less than victory."

Republicans conceded that the measure was headed for approval and said a few dozen party members were likely to break ranks and vote for it.

"The early line is that at a minimum, you'll get two dozen Republicans to go along with the Democrats in stating their disapproval of this action by the president to send more troops to Iraq. But even some Republicans are saying privately that they might get as many as 60," said CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer.

"Now, if that happens, that will mean by a margin of 2 to 1, the House of Representatives is telling the president that they do not approve of the plan," Schieffer said. "If that happens, I think it's going to be very difficult for the president to go forward with this because that will embolden Democrats and those who don't approve of the war to take stronger measures … moving toward finding ways to cut off funding."