Deja Vu

Ugh. Haven't I seen/heard this before?

I'm serious here kids: the Democrats need to hop to it and get this DONE. Gee-Dub is going to veto just about anything that crosses his desk - so they need to break out the big guns.

With people like Dick Lugar and George Voinovich voicing their dissent from the Bush administration's Iraq policy, the jobs of the Democratic leaders in congress may get easier.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates noted legislation from Congress called for progress reports on Iraq in July and September and suggested those should determine any decisions.

... and I do somewhat agree with that. HOWEVER, I worry that when the official reporting comes in July and September - one of two things will happen: 1) Bush will say, "Oh sure, things are going badly, but we need to give it another six months." OR 2) the president will simply lie to the American people and say that "things are going swimmingly with the Surge, but we need to keep all of our troops in Iraq to continue the work." Or, he may come up with some unholy incarnation of both options.

Even though I'm not a political strategist, or a military strategist, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest what needs to happen to end the war in Iraq.

The United States Congress needs to, SOMEHOW, take war powers away from the executive branch. If that means reneging on the Congressional War Authorization - so be it. If that means holding a vote of no-confidence in the president's execution and leadership in this war - write it up.

You can threaten to take away funding all you want - but that's not going to work. Your opponents will always say that you "aren't supporting our troops" or that you are "aiding the enemy".

Thoughts?

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Photo: Molly Riley/REUTERS

filed in: Congress, Democrat, George W. Bush, Iraq, Troop Supportshare: