5/23/07: One would think that when a political party is elected to a majority in the legislature mainly because people think it might do something to stop a war, that party would do everything it could to stop that war.
But in reality, the Democratic majority has done just the
opposite. In the face of Bush vetoing a war funding bill with an
unenforced timetable for withdrawal, the Democratic leadership has
completely caved in, stripping any timetable for withdrawal from the
war funding bill.
So Bush will get $100 billion to continue the
slaughter of the Iraqi people. Not strings attached (except for a few
so-called “benchmarks”, which Bush himself has talked about achieving).
The
justifications given for the Democrats’ betrayal, of, well, probably
everyone that voted them in to Congress, are the typical refrain that
“we have to support our troops”, and “we had to pass something Bush
would approve”. The fact is, the troops are in Iraq killing and being
killed in an unjust war, and this justification can only come down to
saying “we want to fund a military that’s committing war crimes”.
This
latest betrayal by the Democrats, when a crucial moment is before the
future of the Middle East and the world, once again goes to show that
if this war is going to be stopped, the millions of people who hate the
war will have to stop taking dictates from what the Democratic Party
deems acceptable, and start acting outside of these dictates and end
the war.