By Piedmont, CA
The House and Senate have exercised their legal prerogative to affect U.S. policy by placing timetable restrictions on continued funding of the Iraq war. President Bush has mischaracterized this action as “micromanaging.” Indeed, it would be micromanaging if Congress told the generals “how” to fight the war, but it is Congress’ duty to tell the generals “whether” we should fight this misconceived, dishonestly promoted, incompetently managed failure.
Bush threatens to veto the Iraq funding bill because of Congress’ restrictions. If he does veto, funding for current operations will begin to run out. If Congress refuses to pass another unrestricted funding bill, how bad is that? Our military will have to use its remaining funding to secure a safe withdrawal from Iraq.
Of course, Bush will blame the Democrats for “losing” Iraq, and the Democrats will take credit for extracting us from a quagmire. Meanwhile, there will be no more killing on account of American occupation.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 27, 2007. Read the original PDF.