Day: February 13, 2007

By ANNE FLAHERTY

Almost four years into the Iraq war, the House began a historic and emotional debate Tuesday on whether President Bush’s decision to add more U.S. troops to the bloody conflict is a mistake that has to be reversed.

Democrats won control of Congress in last November’s elections and were determined to pass a resolution disapproving of the president’s decision to deploy more than 20,000 additional combat troops

“This is the debate that many of us have yearned for for four years,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.

By JOHN WHITESIDES

For Iowa Democrats, the 2008 presidential campaign is starting where the 2004 race ended — with a search for plain talk and realistic plans on how to end the war in Iraq.

In the state that kicks off the presidential race in less than a year, the war is still the dominant issue and the hunt for a Democrat who can win the White House and bring home the troops is in full bloom.

By DEB RIECHMANN

President Bush on Monday sought to dampen speculation about a U.S. military strike on Iran as the Islamic republic’s president softened his tone, too, and said he wanted dialogue rather than confrontation.

Bush, in an interview at the White House with C-SPAN, dismissed talk of a U.S. military strike on Iran as political chatter. He also said there is still a chance to resolve, through diplomacy, the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

By ANNE FLAHERTY

Speaker Nancy Pelosi led the way Tuesday as the Democratic-controlled House embarked on an extraordinary debate over the Iraq war, declaring that the public has decided that President Bush’s policies “have not worked, will not work and must be changed.”

A vote is expected by Friday on a nonbinding measure that opposes Bush’s recent decision to increase the number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq while pledging support for the troops already there.

By DALE McFEATTERS

Unhappy with the intelligence it was getting from established spy agencies, the Bush administration set up a special intelligence shop under then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, one of the architects of the Iraq war.

By DAN K. THOMASSON

In these tumultuous times in the newspaper industry it is easy to forget there once was a press led by men and women who did not panic at every slight downturn in profit margins already grossly inflated, who regarded the properties they controlled as bulwarks for democracy and whose vision extended beyond each three-month cycle.

Success in business to them transcended profit, which they believed would be steady and lasting only as long as they were constant in observing their responsibilities to their readers and their communities.

By JOHN WHITESIDES

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama drew a contrast with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Iraq war on Sunday and said it was unclear how she planned to end the conflict.

On the day after he formally launched his 2008 White House bid, Obama said on a campaign swing through Iowa that even before the war began it was possible to see the dangerous consequences of a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

By LIZ SIDOTI

When Mitt Romney, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, officially enters the 2008 presidential race, he’ll be a son seeking success where a father failed.

Four decades after George Romney’s short-lived attempt, the younger Romney is returning to the state where he was born and raised to formally announce a candidacy that, if fruitful, would make him the first Mormon president.