Sabotaging the Surge

I'm not the biggest fan of the war in Iraq. We went to Iraq for reasons largely based on faulty intelligence, and the aftermath of Sadaam's fall was terribly mismanaged. But the bill that House Democrats passed yesterday amounted to nothing less than treason. Here's the rundown:

The troop surge in Iraq is getting results. Several top generals, from both the UK and the US, have admitted that our biggest mistake in the early stages of the war was that we didn't put enough soldiers on the ground to secure Iraq. Years later, the military is trying to remedy this security problem by flooding key areas (Baghdad in particular) with thousands of extra troops. And Americans in Iraq, from generals to journalists, have noted a significant improvement in the level of safety in Iraq since the surge began. But in order to keep the pressure on the insurgency in Iraq, the military needs money.

Yesterday, the Democrat controlled House of Representatives voted "yea" on an emergency spending bill that would give that much needed money ($124 billion) to our armed forces. With a catch. Before the bill was passed, Democrats added a clause to the bill that would force US troops to pull out of Iraq by September 2008. Setting a date for a troop withdrawal which would occur whether or not peace has been restored to Iraq is, stated as simply as possible, a terrible idea. What kind of message does that send to the people of Iraq? We came in, dismantled their government, and now we're supposed to leave, whether or not the country is rebuilt? Talk about responsibility. And to add insult to injury, the Democrats couldn't be satisfied with merely inserting a declaration of surrender into a war-funding bill. They also stuffed billions of dollars worth of pork spending into the bill, a move that even CBS news called an attempt to "pay off" House Democrats in return for their votes.

But the goal of the Democrats in hijacking this bill isn't to set a withdrawal date for US troops, or to give billions of dollars to pet causes. Instead, the Democrats are forcing George Bush to cut off funding for his own war. By tacking on a clause that Bush simply cannot agree with, the President will be compelled to veto the bill, essentially halting the flow of money to our military at the very time when they need it the most.

The shameless and deceitful way that the Democrats are trying to undermine our last great hope of ending this war in victory is unbelievable. By mouthing phrases like "we support our troops" while ignoring the advice of our top generals and stabbing the military in the back with treacherous bills like this one, the Democrats are proving to the American people that they are precisely the duplicitous, terrorist-supporting snakes the Republican party accused them of being in the last election. The Democrats say that the American people want a new direction in Iraq. I agree. But we want a new direction that leads to victory, not unconditional defeat.

Hopefully, the bill will be defeated in the Senate and sent back to a vote in the House without the Democrat's precious little add-ons. But I doubt this will the last attempt to sabotage the war effort.