Surging into the New Year How’s this for a new year’s resolution? Looking like “Alice in Wonderland”, President Bush wants to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq to give peace a chance there. Democracy in Iraq seems to be a bigger concern to the president than heeding the results of our own democratic elections at home. Many of us thought, or at least hoped, that the clear message from the November elections was that our troops should be withdrawn from Iraq. Instead, the president now intends to send more young men and women. The president and the pretender, John McCain, call this a "surge". Let’s call it what it really is: an escalation.

Over the next weeks we will watch a parade of administration officials ride their limos up to Capitol Hill and solemnly justify the president’s decision to escalate the war. Democrats will hold hearings, and question and lecture all the president’s men and women. After they have reviewed the studies, reports and testimony, and after several hundreds more deaths of American soldiers and marines, they will come to the conclusion that we came to last fall when we voted to end this war.

Though Democrats have been united in their opposition to the war, they have been vague and cautious in how they would force Bush to begin a withdrawal hoping that hearings and more debate might force the president to finally come to his senses. What they should realize is that this president doesn’t care what the Democrats in Congress think.

Soon the Democrats are going to face a moment of truth. The question will come down to this: will Congress be willing to stand up to Bush’s insistence on expanding the war by reducing or cutting off the funding for the war? Fearing that they would look weak and be accused of not supporting our troops, Democrats have been reluctant to play this card. But by not standing up to the President and exercising their constitutional authority of the power of the purse, the Democratic Congress’ opposition to the war will look like a house of cards that the president will easily roll over.

Labels: Democrats, elections, Iraq, New Year, troops

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