Boehner announces Iraq debate on House floor

New House Majority Leader John Boehner has been saying for weeks now that lawmakers should - and would - get the opportunity to debate the future of the Iraq war in public.

"I think having a forum where members can express their interests, their concerns, their hopes is a good thing for the House," Boehner told reporters a month ago.

Now, that debate has taken shape in the form of a resolution, which the House will consider this Thursday. So tune in to C-SPAN on Thursday for the action.

Or, wait until campaign season and you might just see some of the footage from this debate used in commercials.

Boehner insisted to reporters at his weekly news conference today the debate is NOT partisan, but here is how he described the resolution:

"The fundamental question in this debate is are we going to confront the threat of terrorism and defeat it, or will we relent and retreat and hope the problem goes away? ... There are clear differences between where Republicans and Democrats are on how best to confront the global war on terror, and I think the American people deserve to see that there are different sides to this question and they can make up their own minds."

Note that back in March, Boehner was asked how big a factor he thinks the Iraq war is going to be in the mid-term House races this November. Here is what he said:

"I think it is a big issue. When the country is at war there is a certain unsettling that occurs with people around the country, as you might expect, and with 135,000 men and women from America fighting over there. They are from every community in the country. And so this anxiety that is out in America over this issue is understandable but it does have impact upon peoples' view of a lot of different issues."

So the Iraq war is going to be a "big issue" in the elections and yet having a public debate on it for the purpose of debating it is NOT political?

Welcome to Washington.