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U.S. MILITARY DEATHS (IRAQ): 3791
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED (IRAQ): 27848
IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS (MIN): 71259
'EXCESS' IRAQI DEATHS: 655000
September 19th, 2007 7:58 pm
Senate Republicans block Iraq bill
By Susan Cornwell / Reuters
WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a plan to give U.S. troops in Iraq more leave time, defeating a proposal widely considered the Democrat's best near-term chance to change President George W. Bush's Iraq strategy.
The measure to give troops as much rest time at home as they spend deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan needed 60 votes to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate; it received just 56 votes, with 44 against.
It had been offered by Sen. Jim Webb, a decorated Vietnam veteran and former Navy secretary who said U.S. troops are being "burned out" by repeated redeployments to Iraq.
The plan was strongly opposed by the Bush administration. Pentagon Secretary Robert Gates called it a backdoor attempt to pull troops off the battlefield in the increasingly unpopular Iraq war.
ADG
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