By The Editors
Say at least this for House Democrats: They are beginning to find the courage of their profoundly mistaken convictions. They have moved on from pretending that a nonbinding resolution against sending additional troops into Baghdad and Anbar Province is a serious blow against the war in Iraq to more strenuous attempts to handicap our prosecution of the fight there.
The House Appropriations Committee will take up a bill this week that would authorize $120 billion in additional spending to cover — among other things — the Iraq surge. Pelosi has known all along that refusing to fund the surge would be a political mistake, since it would open her Democrats to charges of defunding troops already in the field. At the same time, Pelosi’s liberal base — and much of her House majority — wants the war stopped, now. The bill tries to keep them happy by setting deadlines for troop withdrawals. President Bush would be told to certify in July, and then again in October, that the Iraqi government had met certain political and military benchmarks. The bill calls for withdrawing U.S. troops within 180 days if these benchmarks aren’t met (although Bush could waive them), and by September of 2008 no matter what. Democrats may also insert language “forbidding” the president to undertake military operations against Iran without congressional approval.
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