Pelosi: Bush has 'tin ear' on Iraq

Pelosi: Bush has 'tin ear' on Iraq

By Rick PearsonTribune political reporterMay 5, 2007As the White House and congressional leaders struggle to reach a compromise on a new war funding bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused President Bush on Friday of a war strategy that ignores the public's will and internal strife in Iraq.Appearing at Rep. Jan Schakowsky's Ultimate Women's Power Lunch, a fundraiser hosted by the North Shore Democratic congresswoman at a downtown Chicago hotel, Pelosi (D-Calif.) defined the Iraq war as "the biggest ethical issue facing our country."She questioned the ethics of sending troops to war "under a false pretense without a strategy for success," without proper equipment and training and without "demanding accountability from the Iraqi government while we dishonored our commitment to our veterans here at home.""In the elections, when the American people were calling for a new direction, the one place where they called for it in the clearest possible way was in the war in Iraq," Pelosi told an audience of about 2,000 people."They wanted the war to wind down," she said. "Instead, the president has escalated it. He has a tin ear in terms of listening to the people and a blind eye as to what is going on in Iraq."Meeting earlier with reporters, Pelosi defended the Democrats' move to tie funding to a withdrawal strategy for U.S. forces. Republicans have contended the withdrawal timetables amounted to a script for insurgents or Al Qaeda to take over the country, fostering new opportunities for terrorism."We'll fight terrorism," she said. "There is absolutely no question about the Democrats' commitment to fighting terrorism."Pelosi said recent White House warnings that Al Qaeda is active in Iraq involves only "a small percentage of the insurgents and militias and those who are fighting there.""The Iraqis will take care of Al Qaeda and we will fight terrorism wherever it exists," she said. "But that doesn't mean we have to have our troops dying in a civil war that is not making our country safer."Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who attended the event, said that while "profound disagreements" exist on a new war funding measure, he believes there is "a constructive and positive attitude" about reaching a compromise by the end of May.But Durbin also noted that congressional efforts to revoke the 2002 war authorization, proposed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) would be fruitless because Bush would never sign such a measure.----------