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thedrifter
07-26-07, 01:48 PM
House says no to permanent bases in Iraq
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 26, 2007 11:08:42 EDT

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that would prohibit permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.

The bill, HR 2929, is sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who has opposed every facet of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, which has often left her out of step with the majority of lawmakers, at least until relatively recently. This time, the House of Representatives was with her, approving the bill by a vote of 399-24.

The bill also said the U.S. will not exercise control over Iraq’s oil resources.

Lee said she hoped passage of the bill would “take the targets off our troops’ backs.”

“The perception that the United States plans to maintain a permanent military presence in Iraq strengthens the insurgency and it fuels the violence against our troops,” she said.

Lee said it is hard to know if the Bush administration is actually planning permanent U.S. bases. In October, Bush said the decision about whether the U.S. would keep bases in Iraq would be made by the Iraqi government. Administration officials also have talked about having a permanent presence in Iraq that would be similar to the presence in South Korea more than 50 years after the Korean War ended.

“We may disagree on many things about Iraq, but I hope we can agree that an endless occupation is not the answer,” Lee said. “Let’s tell our troops that when they come home, they will all come home.”

The bill now goes to the Senate, which has passed similar legislation only when it has been attached to other measures. The 2007 defense authorization, appropriations and supplemental appropriations bills each contained provisions prohibiting the U.S. from creating permanent bases in Iraq. Each of the measures was signed by President Bush, which makes the Lee legislation a symbolic duplication of existing law.

Ellie