Article: Dems Must 'Stay the Course' in Iraq Funding

When Bush casts his veto, the Dems must hold their course and refuse to fund the Iraq Bush experiment until their requirements are met. Bush will have to give in. This is a standoff the Dems can win.

The Dems should stay the course when it comes to refusing to fund the occupation. Money fuels the war machine. Period. Shut it off and Bush can veto all he wants, but the war will have to come to a halt. This is not a Mexican standoff. The congress has every right to block funding of Bush's war. Bush can squawk and whine, threaten and blame, call names and accuse, but he does not have the power to keep funding the war. That is the power, perhaps the only power the Dems have to do what they should do-- obey the will of the people and stop this damned war.

There will be weak, cowardly Dem legislators who will try to persuade congress to compromise. There is no compromise when it comes to giving up the power of the purse. Giving Bush his budget, even a portion of it, is defeat, failure, and a total violation of the the trust the voters placed in the congress when they put the Democrats in office.

When Bush vetos the current bill, I would hope that the Dems are ready with an onslaught of spin, to counter the right wing spin. But they must also hold their ground. Bush has a choice; accept funding with limits, deadlines and requirements or lose the funding for the war.

If the Dems allow a nickel of new money to be released, they will fail.

The leaders of the military have been playing all along as members of the Bush team-- the ones who have not been fired, anyway. They have been historically incompetent failures and losers. It is time they start being responsive to the people's representatives-- the members of congress.

Congress funds the military. While Grover Norquist wants to starve government so it is small enough to drown it in a bathtub, maybe we should look at starving the military so they face the fact that they are accountable to the people of the US, not just the criminal in the Whitehouse.

Yes, we need to support our troops, but when you know a soldier is being led to sure death, defenseless, without leadership, you don't just feed him a meal and say you're doing your job support the soldier, unless you're a fool. You do what you can to rescue the soldier, even if it means he goes without a meal. That's what the Dems are doin and should keep on doing. They need to follow the right wing mantra and stay the course on blocking funds for Iraq until deadlines and minimal training and safety requirements are met for the troops.