Breaking Political News

By Noam N. Levey and James Gerstenzang, Times Staff Writers
April 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — In another sign of Republican unease with the president's Iraq policies, a third GOP senator expressed support Thursday for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq under certain conditions.

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe announced she would sponsor a bill to require American commanders to plan a withdrawal within 120 days of the bill's enactment, unless the Iraqi government meets a series of benchmarks.

"The Iraq government needs to understand that our commitment is not infinite," said Snowe, a moderate from Maine who frequently departs from the party line.

President Bush has insisted that Congress not impose any limits on his conduct of the four-year-old war. But Snowe has taken issue with that view.

"It is our business as well," she said Thursday.

Snowe is not backing a Senate Democratic plan approved last month that would require the president to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days and would set a nonbinding goal of complete withdrawal by March.

But that plan did draw the support of two GOP senators, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon H. Smith of Oregon.

The Senate proposal and a House version approved last month — which both include benchmarks for the Iraqi government — are being merged into one proposal.

Democratic leaders said they expected to have the compromise measure ready for a vote next week.

Bush, who has promised to veto the measure and has spoken out forcefully against it, took his campaign on the road Thursday at a town hall event in House Minority Leader John A. Boehner's western Ohio district.

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In the Talmud of the Jewish tradition, the sage Hillel said: What is hateful to you, do not do to others. This is the whole of the Law; all the rest is commentary.

In the Hindu legend of the Mahabharata, the divine Krishna declared:
This is the sum of duty: Do nothing unto others which would cause you pain
if done to you.

In the Gospel of Matthew in the Christian scriptures, the messiah Jesus says:
Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

In the Buddhist text of the Udanavarga, the student is urged:
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.

In the Muslim Hadith of al Nawawi, the prophet Mohammed teaches:
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he
desires for himself.

In the T'ai Shang treatise of Taoism, the seeker is instructed:
Regard your neighbor's gain as your gain, and your neighbor's loss as your
own loss.

In the ancient wisdom of Shinto there is a saying: The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form.

The Oglala Lakota spiritual leader Black Elk wrote:
All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves.

Giving a whole new defintion to the term “Snow job”.

I think a lot of very good and decent people believed what was being told to us by our government then and initially supported the war in Iraq. My whole family, very dedicated Republicans all, now feel this war is a mistake. I think it misrepresents reality to say that only Democrats want to quit this war.

_________________
In the Talmud of the Jewish tradition, the sage Hillel said: What is hateful to you, do not do to others. This is the whole of the Law; all the rest is commentary.

In the Hindu legend of the Mahabharata, the divine Krishna declared:
This is the sum of duty: Do nothing unto others which would cause you pain
if done to you.

In the Gospel of Matthew in the Christian scriptures, the messiah Jesus says:
Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

In the Buddhist text of the Udanavarga, the student is urged:
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.

In the Muslim Hadith of al Nawawi, the prophet Mohammed teaches:
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he
desires for himself.

In the T'ai Shang treatise of Taoism, the seeker is instructed:
Regard your neighbor's gain as your gain, and your neighbor's loss as your
own loss.

In the ancient wisdom of Shinto there is a saying: The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form.

The Oglala Lakota spiritual leader Black Elk wrote:
All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves.