Stop Iraq war funding NOW

Congressman Jason Altmire:

“The president has made the decision to continue the mission at its current level, and I am never going to vote to withhold funding to our brave men and women when they are out in the field of battle serving in harm’s way.”

Jackass. Cutting the funding is the method for getting troops OUT of harm’s way.

Democrats need to know four things:

1 — The Bush administration will ALWAYS say “we’re making progress. Just give us six more months.”

2 — The Bush administration will ALWAYS say that support for the Bush administration equals support for the troops — unless Democrats give Bush what he wants, service members will be killed.

3 — Bush’s Iraq policy was based on lies and is an utter failure. When it is finally halted, Bush and his Republican clones WILL BLAME DEMOCRATS, because being a Republican means never acknowledging error and never accepting responsibility.

4 — When the next terrorist attack inside the US happens (and it will happen, because we can’t catch them all before they strike), Republicans WILL BLAME DEMOCRATS. If only we had given Bush the powers of a dictator, if only we hadn’t tied his hands, if only we hadn’t hamstrung the efforts ow law enforcement, the Dear Leader, who only has our best interests at heart, could have saved everyone.

Knowing that the Bush administration is a failure in every respect, and knowing that Republicans will blame Democrats for Bush and Republican failures, why should Democrats give Bush and the Republicans anything? It won’t stop Republicans from blaming Democrats, so Democrats have nothing to gain by continuing to cave in.

And then there’s THIS jackass opinion:

“But he said he’s willing to negotiate the details of withdrawal within that framework, both with the generals at the Pentagon and with his Republican colleagues.

“We need to get their input, because without their buy-in, we’ll be stuck with the president’s veto, because it will always be sustained,” McNerney said in an interview.”

I’m tired of being told how many members of Congress it takes to pass legislation and how many to override a veto — I KNOW HOW TO COUNT. Here’s how it should work — pass the legislation. If the President vetoes it, pass it again. And again, and again.
It should be obvious that making Republicans expend considerable effort to get their way will make them change their course or negotiate a compromise. In addition, every bit of energy they have to expend on passing their Iraq funding is energy they can’t expend on some other misguided, corrupt, thieving scheme.

In addition, Democrats seem to be under the mistaken belief that legislating is all about running the government. Republicans understand the value of symbolic votes that have no practical effect, but can be used to create a record that shows up in negative ads during campaigns. Democrats should learn from that example and seek every chance to put Republicans on the record as favoring the war so that they can’t run away from their own failure.