Senate approves war spending bill forcing troop withdrawal

Senate Democrats ignored a veto threat and pushed through a bill today requiring President George Bush to start withdrawing US troops from “the civil war in Iraq,” dealing a rare, sharp rebuke to the president as a wartime commander in chief.

In a mostly party line 51-47 vote, the Senate signed off on a bill providing $122bn (€91.5bn) to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also orders Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within 120 days of passage while setting a non-binding goal of ending combat operations by March 31, 2008.