But there could be efforts to insert benchmarks that Iraq has to meet to keep funding going.
This is foolish. We want the Iraqis to fight without needing our help, yet if they fail to meet certain standards of doing that we will undermine their ability to fight without our help?
Should we have goals in mind for the Iraqis to work for? Absolutely. But benchmarks should be used to focus resources on achieving those goals and not for punishing the Iraqis.
Who thinks the pro-government members of Iraq's Parliament are happy with the status quo and don't want to act if they can? They are on our side, remember? Penalties empower the members of their parliament who obstruct the government.
This approach is not based on any reality that I'm aware of. Perhaps that's nuanced, big-brained foreign policy in action!
Still, having won the bare minimum of votes to pass the original spending bill with timetables of withdrawal by adding massive amounts of non-defense spending and blatant pork into the bill, Congress has given the President the green light to use his veto pen on other non-defense measures that Congress dearly wants.
And for the rest of 2007 and in 2008, there will likely be many other bills that Congress dearly wants to pass that must be signed by the President to go into law. The President has leverage to get what he needs out of this Congress to fight the war. He need only grant cosmetic cover for them to back down in order for them to get the other legislative objectives they have enacted.
Give Congress their pork. But make sure that they give Petraeus the tools to win in return.
UPDATE: Like I said, Congress has many pieces of legislation they'd like passed. Even though the House passed a number of bills in quick succession, they do not yet have legislative success that they can run on as a record of success:
The voters seem to have noticed the stall. An ABC News-Washington Post poll last month found that 73 percent of Americans believe Congress has done "not too much" or "nothing at all." A memo from the Democratic polling firm Democracy Corps warned last month that the stalemate between Congress and Bush over the war spending bill has knocked down the favorable ratings of Congress and the Democrats by three percentage points and has taken a greater toll on the public's hope for a productive Congress.
These are bills that need the president's signature to become law. Congress is the legislative branch of our government. But they are confused if they think that their slim majority means that they can ignore the president. Time magazine may be confused about whether the president has influence, but Congress should not be so addled.
Of course, if Congress insists on using their new power to investigate political differences as crimes, they will continue to waste time.
