By Xinhua
Washington : The US House has voted 399-24 to pass a bill that would prevent the establishment of permanent US military bases in Iraq and bar US control of Iraqi oil.
The bill was introduced Wednesday by Democratic Representative Barbara Lee of California and was supported by all but 24 Republicans in the 435-member chamber.
"Putting Congress on record with this clear statement helps take the targets off our troops' backs and it supports our goals of handing over responsibility for security and public safety to Iraqi forces," she said on the House floor.
Lee said Congress "must soundly reject the vision of an open-ended occupation as bad policy that undermines the safety of our troops and recognize it for what it is: another recruiting poster for terrorists.
"We may disagree on many things about Iraq, but I hope we can agree that an endless occupation is not the answer," said the lawmaker who first introduced legislation to bar permanent US bases in Iraq in June 2005.
Democratic Representative Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Bush administration "has drawn a parallel between our proposed sustained presence in Iraq and the US obligation to South Korea after the Korean War.
"The last thing Congress and the American people want in Iraq is to keep US troops there permanently," Lantos said.