Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/long-legislative-fight-led-to-iraq-war-funding-bill Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript In 2006, Democrats took over Congress with a promise to bring U.S. troops home. Kwame Holman looks at what's happened since then and the legislative fight over a bill to fund the Iraq and Afghan wars. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. KWAME HOLMAN: It's become routine in committee rooms and on the streets around the Capitol, demonstrators railing against the Iraq war, targeting Republicans, but also the Democrats who promised to end it. PROTESTER: This is a group of Republicans and a group of Democrats who can't figure out how to get us out. KWAME HOLMAN: Within earshot of this recent demonstration, a group of House Democrats was sympathetic, but almost resigned to the reality their latest legislative attempt, like all the ones before, would not bring the troops home.California's Barbara Lee has been a staunch opponent of the war from the start.REP. BARBARA LEE (D), California: The American people put Democrats in the majority to end the occupation, not to extend the occupation. KWAME HOLMAN: By the end of 2006, the U.S. military death toll in Iraq had reached 3,000. America's patience with the war was thin, and many voters took out their frustrations on Republican candidates in November's congressional elections.Democrats captured narrow majorities in both the House and Senate and vowed to end the Iraq war.REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), Speaker of the House: The election of 2006 was a call to change, not merely to change the control of Congress, but for a new direction for our country. Nowhere were the American people more clear about the need for a new direction than in the war in Iraq. KWAME HOLMAN: But in the 17 months since taking control of Congress, Democrats have been foiled in every attempt to withdraw troops, to give them extended downtime, prevented even from mandating benchmarks on the Iraqi government.Rahm Emanuel is a member of the House Democratic leadership.REP. RAHM EMANUEL (D), Illinois: And we've tried to force the president. He has the veto pen. We don't have the votes to override. I'm not, you know, crying in my milk. We have brought to his desk conditions tied to money. He has vetoed it.