Articles
Boston Globe: Pelosi faults GOP in Iraq war; Says efforts to chart new course were blocked
09/25/2007
By Scott Helman
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed frustration yesterday
at the public perception that Democrats in Congress had failed to end the war
in
In an hourlong interview with the editorial board of The
Boston Globe, Pelosi said responsibility for the war no longer lay just with
President Bush but with her Republican counterparts on Capitol Hill, who she
said are more interested in protecting Bush than working to redeploy the
169,000 American troops now in Iraq.
"We have to make it very clear to the American people
that it was George Bush's war [but] it is now the Republicans in Congress's
war," she said.
The perception among many Americans, she said, is that
Democrats, despite leading Congress since January, had failed to make
meaningful progress toward ending the war, which they promised to do after
winning both chambers of Congress in last fall's elections.
"They think we just aren't doing it, and that's good
for Republicans," Pelosi said.
Just 24 percent of respondents in a
Pelosi said Democrats had been willing to work with
Republicans to find common ground on
"The Republicans in the Senate have guarded the
gate," Pelosi said.
While the administration envisions a lasting troop presence
in