Liberalis erectus

Could the American democrats actually have located their backbone?

Their plan to push through legislation to end the Iraqi occupation, despite the unlikelihood of the bill passing, seems to suggest 'yes.'

The bill proposes to:

• Start withdrawing most troops from Iraq on October 1 of this year.

• Complete full troop withdrawal within 180 days of that start date, except for counterterrorism and training forces.

• Require the Iraqi government to meet specific benchmarks that show they can stand on their own two feet.

• Funnel money that was supposed to fund the ongoing war machine to medical funding for troops, support for U.S. farmers, and other non-Iraq issues.

The thing is, once the bill passes through the Senate and the House, apparently Bush can still veto it (something similar to Canada's infamous Notwithstanding Clause, it seems)--and of course he plans to.

Some experts don't think the legislation has a hope in hell of being passed, but what it will do is force Team Bush's leaden hand. It will force them to come up with some kind of alternate withdrawal plan, and then hopefully our neighbour to the south can start its long recovery from this collective nightmare.

Here's the funniest line in the whole piece: "Republicans accused Democrats of overstepping their constitutional authority and micromanaging the war." Pot...meet kettle.

Also humourous:

"Mr. Bush made it clear again on Monday that he would use the second veto of his tenure to kill the legislation, which would set a goal of having most American combat forces out of Iraq within six months of Oct. 1.

"An artificial timetable of withdrawal would say to an enemy, ‘Just wait them out,’ ” he said. “It would say to the Iraqis, ‘Don’t do hard things necessary to achieve our objectives,’ and it would be discouraging for our troops.”

Ah, the unnamed looming "enemy"...the "we've got to set an example for the poor hapless Iraqis" verbage...the "concern for the troops" spin...seems we've heard it all before, no? At the very least, maybe this move by the Democrats will force Bush's speech writers to come up with some more interesting material.