When President Bush and Democratic congressional leaders meet next week to discuss Iraq war funding, it needs to be a two-way dialogue that doesn’t end in a political or budgetary stalemate. The United States owes that to Iraqis, and to its own troops who remain at risk.
Unlike the docile Congress from the first six years of the Bush presidency, Democratic leaders have begun to exercise the legislative body’s proper role with this war, providing oversight and reasoned budget authority. Bush, at least for the moment, is stubbornly refusing to negotiate.
The two sides need to find enough common ground to fund operations in Iraq that give Iraqis a chance to establish a secure and severing state. It will require some concessions, and a degree of courage, from both sides, but it’s necessary.
Bush’s bravado – he vows not to budge unless Congress gives him exactly what he wants, a “clean” spending bill without a timetable for withdrawal – has thrown Wednesday’s meeting into doubt, with Democrats fearing he’ll only make demands, rather than listen.
“We have been disappointed with the president’s decision to avoid a serious, substantive discussion with Congress on Iraq,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a prepared statement. “We will listen to his position, but in return we will insist that he listen to concerns of the American people that his policies in Iraq have failed and we need to change course.”
Democrats are willing to give some room on a withdrawal date. Denver Congresswoman Diana DeGette told The Denver Post this week that her party leadership wants Bush to follow his own benchmarks for progress in Iraq, many of which are in the Senate funding bill, and avoid a game in which he blames Democrats for not supporting the troops he has put in harm’s way. “The citizens of this country are uninterested in who gets the blame for the war,” she said. “They’re interested in how we get out in the most orderly and efficient way.”
The administration’s war plan seems to be anything but orderly and efficient. The Pentagon announced Wednesday that all active-duty soldiers deployed or going to Iraq and Afghanistan will have their one-year tours extended to 15 months. It’s the only way Bush’s “surge” strategy is mathematically feasible – even though the Army is stretched to the breaking point.
All this is debated as the grim realities of war continue to play out. A cafeteria bombing Thursday inside the Iraqi Parliament building killed two lawmakers and six others, and a second bombing destroyed a major Baghdad bridge over the Tigris River. Such incidents only underscore the dangerous and unsettled nature of Iraq.
