Showdown nears on Iraq pullout

WASHINGTON — Setting in motion a promised showdown with the White House, Democratic congressional leaders united Monday behind an emergency war-spending measure that requires the president to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq no later than this autumn.

The $124 billion compromise, which does not include a firm deadline for President Bush to end U.S. combat involvement in the conflict, is headed for a certain presidential veto.

But as Congress and the White House face off over the course of U.S. policy in Iraq, Monday's agreement marked the prologue for a week that will produce the most serious legislative challenge to a wartime president since Vietnam. The House and Senate, with the support of most Democrats, are expected to approve the measure by Thursday.

And Bush, who only once in the past six years has vetoed legislation, could invoke his power as early as the end of the week.

Democrats, who cannot muster enough votes to overcome a veto, have hinted that they then will send the president a funding bill without timelines but insist they will keep up the pressure on Bush to end the U.S. combat role.

Bush has argued that setting dates for bringing troops home would allow America's enemies to wait out U.S. forces.

"Politicians in Washington shouldn't be telling generals how to do their job," the president said.

Senate Democrats narrowly passed their version of the spending bill with a timeline mandating that withdrawals begin within 120 days of enactment. But they avoided any deadline for completing the withdrawal, in deference to moderate Democrats who feared imposing too many limitations on the military. The plan set a nonbinding goal of completing the withdrawal by March 31.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her lieutenants were forced to toughen the timelines to accommodate lawmakers on the other end of the ideological spectrum.

The House plan set out a mandatory timeline linked to progress by the Iraqi government in disarming militias, amending the Iraqi constitution and taking other steps aimed at reducing sectarian strife.

The House required the president to complete the withdrawal by August 2008 or earlier if the Iraqi government failed to show progress.

In a nod to moderate Senate Democrats, the compromise approved Monday sets a nonbinding goal for completing withdrawal. But it maintains the link between the withdrawal timeline and the performance of the Iraqi government.

The compromise plan calls for a withdrawal to begin July 1 if Bush does not certify that the Iraqi government is making progress on a series of "reconciliation initiatives," with a goal of completing the withdrawal within 180 days, which would end Dec. 27.