Senate Rejects Attempt to Regulate Combat Tours
The Senate voted down a bill Wednesday that would regulate how much time troops spend in combat.
According to the AP story on MSNBC.com, the votes were 56-44, which is four votes short of passing. The bill would have required troops to spend as much time at home as they did in combat.
Reuters reported that this was widely seen as the Democrats best chance to change the strategy of the Iraq War. They also report that a bill similar to this one has passed in the House of Representatives.
Both outlets report that Republican leaders called this a "backdoor" way of withdrawing troops out of Iraq. MSNBC.com reports that Sen. John McCain called the bill "'backdoor method' by Democrats to force troop withdrawals. Reuters reported that "Pentagon Secretary Robert Gates called it a backdoor attempt to pull troops off the battlefield in the unpopular Iraq war"