Brooklyn stands up to Bush - Nadler bill calls for U.S. troops to return home by year’s end

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Brooklyn stands up to Bush - Nadler bill calls for U.S. troops to return home by year’s end

With many in the country questioning President Bush’s recent “surge” plan to win the war in Iraq, Rep. Jerrold Nadler introduced a bill in Congress last week that would stop Bush’s planned offensive.

Nadler represents parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Titled the “Protect the Troops and Bring Them Home Act,” the bill would limit any funds that Congress appropriates for the war to working toward bringing all troops home from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2007.

Additionally, the bill will allow funds to only be spent to protect current U.S. troops that are in Iraq, provide assistance to Iraqi security forces, provide economic and reconstruction assistance, and arrange for diplomatic consultations.

“It has been wrongly asserted that Congress cannot force the President to de-escalate or withdraw from Iraq because it cannot use its only real power — cutting off funds — lest it be accused of ‘abandoning the troops,’” says Nadler.

“But if Congress appropriates funds, but limits those funds to protecting the troops and redeploying them from Iraq, that would be the best way of supporting the troops,” he added.