If Bush doesn't commit to withdrawal, the next U.S. president will take charge of this

[ProSense]

U.S. military deaths in Iraq at 3,409 plus another year and a half of casualties.

[Monkeyman]

1. You Know It's his plan

[INdemo]

2. Of Course he does..Its already the Democrats problem..They inherited this war

when they won the Majority in Congress..
The Democrats cannot cave on this war funding issue..If they do and give this President a funding bill that even comes close to a victory for the White House than that creates a problem that would invite a third party candidate for the 2008 election ........Tell me I'm crazy but I believe that could very well happen...

[Rydz777]

3. I think you're right. There are two reasons the Democratic

Congress needs to bring this miserable war to a halt NOW: (1) it is the moral thing to do, and (2) they will save the Democratic President who will succeed Bush the awful reality of having the oxygen sucked out of the very beginning of the new administration.

[INdemo]

4. Thats correct

And by the Democratic President spending most of his time and energy on ending the war it gives the republicans an opening for labeling him the do nothing President for not acting on other high priority issues. This would also take its toll on the Democratic majority in Congress..thats the way the Republicans work...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. Doesn't seem like a legacy I'd want if I were him. IF

I know that it's quite likely that Bush wants to leave this mess to his successor to "fix" but I don't quite understand how leaving office not having decisively resolved this one way or another is going to help enhance his "legacy". Maybe he just doesn't care, I don't know, but leaving office with our troops holed up in the middle of a vicious and seemingly intractable civil war between various ethnic groups all because he led us into a "war of choice" waged on flimsy and fraudulent pretenses and a seemingly endless occupation of a middle eastern country without any kind of "exit strategy" (which he and other Republicans used to pretend that they cared about) doesn't seem like the kind of legacy that I would want to leave for myself but maybe he is just thinking how our mission in Iraq has been a terrific gift to the country, one that he just wants to share with future Presidents and Congresses. It doesn't make much sense to me. Clinton reportedly wanted to smash Al-Queda following the attack on the USS Cole but apparently declined to hand the new President a war. Of course, he probably learned this lesson the hard way after inheriting the mess in Somalia from Bush I.