House Democratic leaders are coming together around legislation that would fund the war through September but would withhold more than half of those funds until July, when Bush would have to report on the Iraqi government's progress toward benchmarks such as quelling sectarian violence, disarming militias and sharing oil revenue equitably. Congress would then have to vote in late July to release the remaining funds.
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Democrats say that is a reasonable time frame for the first assessment of Bush's troop increase, since the last of the additional troops being sent to Iraq will arrive this month.
Although I am sure David Broder will throw a hissy fit about how the Democrats are not being bipartisan enough, this sounds like a plan that can garner support across the Democratic party's big tent and maybe pick up some Republicans who are worried about their prospects in '08, because let's face it: the American people hate this war. But whither say the opposition?
... Petraeus has said repeatedly that it will be at least another month or two after the troops are in place before it will be possible to assess the impact of those reinforcements and, just as important, of the new U.S. approach that is moving combat troops off big, isolated bases and into dozens of smaller combat outposts across Baghdad. When he visited Washington last month, Petraeus told members of Congress that he will be ready to assess his progress by September.
Because by the time the troops will have been in Iraq from late May to late July will not be a month or two... my head is spinning. Either way, sounds like more calls for stalling and Friedman Units to me.
By the way, can we please stop calling this the Iraq war and start calling it the Baghdad war? We are fighting to maintain control of one city and, according to Petraeus, we will have to wait at least another four months to see if we can make progress. We have already lost.
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