Why Democrats won't take the short cut to ending war (not letting funding bill to floor)

[yurbud]

The obvious answer is that too many are beholden to the same corporate donors as the GOP or want to be, but a subtler answer is that if they end the war by keeping a spending bill from the floor, in a decade or so when the public forgets that the war was unpopular and a losing proposition, the GOP can truthfully say the Democrats ended the war all by themselves--and then they'll tack on a lie that the war was winnable with a few more dollars, troops, and years.

I do not agree that this is a good reason to wait to end the war until Bush or Congressional Republicans sign on, but it is probably part of the calculus Congressional Democratic leaders are making.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. A less subtle answer: They can have it both ways.

They can complain about the way the war is being run and make meaningless gestures to show their "anti-war" stance and show that they "support the troops" because the gestures are meaningless.

Both parties are afraid of being seen as losing an obviously lost war. The Republicans are relying on the "stab in the back" scenario made popular by Hitler. The Democrats by using the "peace with honor" scenario made popular by Nixon.

aka - Politics as Usual

[tekisui]

2. The Democrats want to run one more election on this horrible Occupation.

They made gains in 2006, more than many expected. They want to win the 2008 election on the same premise, that they are the Party to end the war. If they had ended it by withholding the funds, we would be watching a de-escalation and every death in Iraq would be placed on the Democrats.

[Disturbed]

3. All of the reasons posted so far are valid.

They want to keep the Fiasco going for their benefit of the '08 Elections & also want that Oil Deal to be finalized. The MIC & the Multi-Corps control them all. The majority of Dems don't give a rat's ass what the citizens want. They are also banking on Dems to vote for them no matter how betrayed they feel.

[MonkeyFunk]

4. Or they realize

that simply cutting all funding to the troops would be electoral suicide, and is a move supported by very few Americans.

[yurbud]

8. you must live in DC

[JustAnotherGen]

5. They aren't afraid of us

All of the reasons posted above too! But all of those reasons come down to one thing: They aren't afraid of us. We can post here, protest there, etc. etc. They aren't going to change anything. I feel cheated and ripped off.

[yurbud]

9. that too. we are mere voters, not future employers of congress lizards as CEOs, board members...

lobbyists, etc.

And we have no juicy insider stock tips to share.

[mmonk]

6. To us who have people over there,

the excuses don't really matter.

[Tom Joad]

7. when Hillary and more dems enter congress... you can rest assured it will be only 5 or 6 years

before they have the troops back home. or most of them. or redeployed to Iran.