Congress' Iraq vote sets up big fight this fall

WASHINGTON — Congress grudgingly voted Thursday to finance the Iraq war through September, even as President Bush conceded that U.S. forces face many casualties in coming months, and possibly a "bloody" August as enemies try to "shake the will" of the United States.

The House and Senate approvals of $94.5 billion for the military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan came after Democratic leaders abandoned the timelines for U.S. troop withdrawals they had sought for months and that the president had vetoed in an earlier measure. Democrats pledged to fight again this fall.

The Senate sent the $120 billion package to the president by a 80-14 margin. The House earlier cleared the measure 280-142, with Republicans supplying the bulk of the support.

War opponents dismissed the bill as a capitulation to Bush and said they would seek to hold supporters in both parties accountable. But backers said the bill's provisions — including 18 benchmarks for progress that the Iraqi government must meet to continue receiving reconstruction aid — represented an assertion of congressional authority over the war that was unthinkable a few months ago. Bush's first report to Congress on the Iraqis' progress in meeting the benchmarks is due July 15.

While the outcome resolves the immediate stalemate in Bush's favor, it binds him even more closely to a highly unpopular war. It also only postpones the next open battle between the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House to September, when Bush's hand may be even weaker.

"This debate will go on," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was even more emphatic.

"Senate Democrats will not stop our efforts to change the course of this war until either enough Republicans join with us to reject President Bush's failed policy or we get a new president," he said.

September is shaping up as a portentous month, with the new war funding expiring and Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, due to submit a progress report on Bush's troop escalation. A significant number of Republican lawmakers have said they may abandon the president if conditions in Iraq have not improved by then.

Because insurgents are aware that September will be pivotal, Bush said, forces intent on pushing the United States out of Iraq are likely to step up assaults this summer. "It could make August a tough month," he acknowledged at a Rose Garden news conference.

"What they're going to try to do is kill as many innocent people as they can to try to influence the debate here at home," Bush said. "They recognize that the death of innocent people could shake our will. ... So, yes, it could be a bloody — it could be a very difficult August."

The prospect of increasing violence raises questions about how long the president's fragile support in his party can last.

"We will transfer the Iraqi fight to September," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., who opposed the war-funding bill without the timetable. "Opponents of this war need to face this fact, just as the president and his allies need to face the fact that they are pursuing a dead-end policy."

Republicans countered by saying the priority was in making sure the military had the funds it needs now.

"The top of our list is to provide for the safety of the American people," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, choking back tears on the floor. "After 3,000 Americans died at the hands of these terrorists, when are we going to stand up and take them on?"

Bush noted during his 50-minute news conference that the benchmarks hold the Iraqi government accountable, something pushed by Democrats and accepted by the White House. The legislation "reflects a consensus that the Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return for America's continued support and sacrifice," the president said.

Noting that the escalation of military force that he ordered in January will not be deployed fully until late June, Bush said, "This summer is going to be a critical time for the new strategy. ... We're going to expect heavy fighting in the weeks and months [ahead]." That, Bush conceded, will mean "more American and Iraqi casualties."

The president said he is eager, after more than four years of fighting in Iraq, for U.S. forces to assume a "different configuration." Pressed for specifics, he cited the report of the Iraq Study Group, which proposed that U.S. forces significantly scale back by early 2008 and serve largely as trainers and "force protection" for Iraqi military forces.

The feasibility of scaling back in this way will be part of what Petraeus evaluates in the report that he delivers in September, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

Terrorists "clearly intend to keep the violence stoked in trying to provoke sectarian violence," Gates said. "They are a significant complicating factor in what we are trying to accomplish through the surge."

Petraeus' report will not be the last word, Gates said. "The decision on whether to change course in any way is going to be the president's decision."

Yet it could be politically tough for Bush to go against the Petraeus report. The general appears to be one of the few public figures widely trusted on Iraq, and Bush mentioned his name repeatedly Thursday. Bush has stressed throughout the war the importance of listening to "commanders on the ground."

Sept. 30 is the end of the federal budget year, and the president's Office of Management and Budget has made it known it will seek roughly $145 billion more for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the following fiscal year.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, announced he would remove Iraq war funding from the 2008 Pentagon spending bill that is expected to reach the House floor in July. Instead, Murtha said, he would bring up a separate Iraq funding bill in September.

"By that time we will know whether the surge is working or isn't working," Murtha said. "I do not wish for a bad result, but I see the administration finally changing and finally recognizing this can't be won militarily."

Defending his widely criticized stance that Iraq has become the central front in a global war on terror, the president said, "This notion about how this isn't a war on terror, in my view, is naive. I would hope our world hadn't become so cynical that they don't take the threats of al-Qaida seriously, because they're real."

Bush twice admonished reporters that al-Qaida is "a threat to your children."

At times, Bush appeared frustrated, combative and tired in answering questions about a lingering war that many in his administration had thought would be far quicker and more decisive. The president seemed especially annoyed when a reporter asked why Osama bin Laden was still free.

"He's hiding," Bush said. "We haven't got him yet."

The Associated Press and The Washington Post contributed to this report.