Not Good Enough

Now you're playing politics with the troops' lives so you - and a Democratic president - can claim victory.

President George W. Bush's request for nearly $200 billion more to fund the Iraq war will not be approved unless it is linked to a plan to bring home U.S. combat troops by January 2009, the head of the House appropriations committee said on Tuesday.

Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, told a news conference his panel would not even consider the war funding request until early 2008, by which time he estimates funding for military operations will have run out. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently outlined the request to Congress.

Obey said he and other Democrats also would introduce a surtax to pay for the war in Iraq, although he acknowledged he did not expect the House Democratic leaders to support a war surtax plan.

Indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she is "opposed to a war surtax," adding, "The choice is between a Democratic plan for responsible redeployment of our troops and the president's plan for a 10-year war in Iraq. We must end this war."

Stop being weak and ineffectual. Out now.