Pelosi puts pressure on Dems to OK war funding

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Pelosi puts pressure on Dems to OK war funding

Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

(06-16) 04:00 PDT Washington -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House will try to muscle through a $106 billion war funding bill today, hoping to quell a rebellion among liberal Democrats against further support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The fight has two Bay Area Democrats from across the Golden Gate locked in a seesaw struggle to corral votes: Pelosi, of San Francisco, against Petaluma's Lynn Woolsey, co-chairwoman of the House Progressive Caucus and a fierce opponent of the war.

"I see no reason to be keeping our troops in Iraq that much longer and to start into Afghanistan when there's no end in sight," Woolsey said Monday. "If we were voting on funds to bring our troops home from Iraq, I'd vote for it in a minute. ... I just hope we're not repeating the mistake we made in Iraq."

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The wars remain very unpopular among most Democrats, many of whom battled the Bush administration for years trying to withdraw funding for Iraq.

There is also widespread dismay over Obama's "surge" of troops into Afghanistan without a clear exit strategy. Modeled on the Bush administration's Iraq surge, which quelled violence there, the Afghanistan effort will double the number of U.S. troops in the country, to 68,000 by the end of the year.

Today's vote is expected to be close. Democratic leaders need as many as 18 of the 51 Democrats who opposed the war funding in May to reverse themselves. The legislation has twice been pulled from consideration for lack of votes.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/15/MNQD187GAH.DTL