Edwards Pushes Congress on Iraq

Feb. 14, 2007 — -- As President Bush urged Congress to pass war funding and members of the U.S. House of Representatives debated a new resolution opposing the President's plan to send more troops to Iraq, one of the top contenders for the White House in 2008 called on Congress to do more.

Former Senator John Edwards said the members of Congress he once served beside ought to cap funding for US troops in Iraq, require the withdrawal of all combat troops over the next 12-18 months and demand that the President seek a new congressional authorization for the war.

"At this point the escalation is underway so blocking it is not enough," Edwards told reporters on a conference call.

"We need more than nonbinding resolution," he continued. "We need to end this war and Congress has the power to do it."

Edwards no longer has that power. He resigned his own seat in the U.S. Senate after running as the Vice Presidential Democratic nominee in 2004. He said Wednesday he has not yet asked any sitting member of Congress to propose his ideas in the form of actual legislation.

But by laying down a new marker, Edwards is clearly trying to gain political ground in the 2008 race. His vocal opposition to the war -- unencumbered by the political constraints of a sitting Senator -- has proven widely popular in early primary states like Iowa.

"I actually believe this proposal is one that would have a support of the majority of the American people," Edwards said. "I think there is a political will in the country to move to this course as opposed to what were doing now."

Edwards' proposal would cap funding for U.S. troops at the level of funding for 100,000 troops. That, he said, would lead to an immediate drawdown of between forty and fifty thousand troops. He would leave no permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.

"In order to get the Iraqi people to take responsibility for their country, we must show them that we are serious about leaving, and the best way to do that is to actually start leaving," Edwards said in a written statement sent out during the conference call.