Ake, the Dems did not vote "to fund an escalation of a war which they promised to bring to an end." They were in a bind. Had they simply cut the funding, that would have left the troops in Iraq in a bad situation. If the troops tried to stay, they wouldn't be able to replace equipment needed for their own survival, and if they simply pulled out, that would release the curbs on a hot civil war that would spread through the whole Middle East, last for generations, and ended in the slaughter of millions of people. And eventually lead to Lord only knows what! That civil war is already under way, but at least, with American forces there, it's partially contained.

If the thin Democratic majority in Congress had refuse to authorize funding, this, of course, would have provided the Republicans with a really effective "war cry" for the coming 2008 national election:   "The Democrats betrayed our troops in Iraq by refusing to authorize funding! They lost us the war!" The "war" is lost anyway (many U. S. generals are already saying that this thing is unwinnable), but since the Bush administration precipitated this idiotic and illegal war, it's really Bush's responsibility to clean it up. He won't, of course. He'll be off the hook in January of 2009, leaving this colossal mess to the next administration. Next administrations.

Consider what would happen if the Republicans manage to get re-elected in the 2008 elections:   what's next? Iran? North Korea? God (and probably Dick Cheney) only knows, and He doesn't want any part of this.

The Dems tried their damndest to put a time limit on the funding bill (September—next month), but Bush said he would veto anything with a time limit, and the Dems knew they didn't have enough votes in Congress to override a veto. So they were between a rock (Iraq?) and a hard place. They did the best thing they could do with the options available: fund the troops for the safety of the troops and work in other ways to try to wind this thing down.

Cleaning up the mess that Bush and his bully-boys made is not going to be easy and it's going to take time. It's going to take recruiting international cooperation and assistance, and the Democrats are a helluva lot better at that sort of thing that the Republicans have ever been. So best they keep the pressure on, bide their time, and work for a "change of regime" in 2008.

To think they could just yank the troops out right now is just plain naïve, not to mention bloody irresponsible.

Don Firth