Unpopular Quagmire To Drag On
Surrenderistas capitulate, send war funds to Bush. AFP:
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US lawmakers Wednesday passed a major bill including funding for the Iraq war for President George W. Bush to sign, after Democrats failed again in efforts to pressure him over the unpopular conflict.
Unpopular is as unpopular does.
The House of Representatives voted 272 to 142 to approve changes made Tuesday by the Senate, which allocated 70 billion dollars of funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
That doesn’t sound so unpopular to me, though of course you have to understand those numbers don’t reflect any kind of enthusiasm for the recent successes in Iraq, rather a complex interplay of defeatism, a frustrated shakedown, bitter reality and despair.
The Senate approved the war funds Tuesday along with a catch-all 555 billion dollar budget bill, but was unable to push through any restrictions on the war spending.
Democrats also gave up several billion dollars’ worth of other budget demands rejected by Bush, in order to see the spending measure passed before the year-end recess.
You’d think, if they had the courage of their convictions, given the mandate, if America truly wanted to surrender, the surrender camp would fight on. Of course, in addition to lacking an actual mandate, unlike AFP they may have also noticed the war’s popularity curve is headed in the wrong direction.
Democrats took control of the US Congress in January 2007, propelled by voter discontent over Iraq, but they have had no luck in using the legislature’s power over federal spending to force a timetable for a US withdrawal from Iraq.
You know what they say. You make your own luck. Speaking of which, there’s a big anniversary in non-surrender history coming up. What do you think Gen. McAuliffe would say about this Congress? Surrenderists who accept defeat, give up on capitulation? Nuts!
Surrenderism historian Surber’s scholarly work on the issue:
Iraquagmire: Congress wasted control of the 110th Congress with constant votes on Iraq.
110th Spelunking Division: Gen. Reid leads the Retreat.
Instapundit flips the channel to “A Surge of Their Own” … could make a good, sappy Christmas miracle special on Hallmark, don’t you think? … and points to IraqPundit’s wry observations on same.
Topics: Afghanistan, Iraq, pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:27 am on Thursday, December 20, 2007
4 Responses to “Unpopular Quagmire To Drag On”
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December 20th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Honey I’m home. Dems take cover!
December 20th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Just think how different the world might look if Harry Flightfoot Reid had been in charge at any of Western Civilization’s other great battles.
And yes, this is one. If you don’t believe this un-nuanced wing nut, just ask the people we are fighting…
December 20th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
They waited just long enough to give another propaganda point to the enemy, and make our allies nervous.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
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