Maybe there is something that Democrats can do to prevent the president from escalating the war in Iraq.
While many are considering a nonbinding resolution critical of the president’s plan — a symbolic slap, if you will, but useless as a brake on teh administration’s plans — Sens. Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy have other ideas.
Two bills — one introducted by Sen. Dodd of Connecticutt, the other authored by Sen. Kennedy of Massachussets but still in draft form — would force the president to come back to the Senate for permission to increase troop levels.
Dodd’s bill would set a ceiling of 130,000 troops in Iraq, requiring the president to get funding permission before boosting levels.
Dodd, in making his announcement today, said:
“the issues are far too important” for nonbinding measures. “Other than expressing opposition, I felt we should do something more,” he said, calling for quick action before any troop increase becomes a fait accompli.
“The president has laid down the gauntlet by saying he is going to go forward and I don’t care what you say,” said Dodd. He argued that the authorization Congress gave Bush in 2002 to send troops to Iraq, leading to the March 2003 invasion and occupation, did not cover a situation that has since degenerated into a civil war among rival religious, ethnic and political sects.
If Democrats feel they need ammunition, they should look no farther than The Los Angeles Times. The paper today released results of a poll conducted earlier this week that showed that a majority of Americans want the soldiers brought home.
WASHINGTON — A commanding majority of Americans oppose President Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq and just over half the country wants Congress to block the deployment, a Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
As he seeks to chart a new course in Iraq, Bush also faces pervasive resistance and skepticism toward the U.S. commitment — more than three-fifths of those surveyed said the war was not worth fighting and only one-third approved of his handling of the conflict.
And in a striking measure of Bush’s declining credibility, half said they believed he deliberately misled the U.S. in making his case for invading Iraq.
On all three questions, these are Bush’s weakest showing in a Times poll.
Asked about Bush’s recent announcement that he would dispatch another 21,500 troops to Iraq, three-fifths said they opposed the move, while just over one-third backed it.
Even Bush’s political base, a source of support throughout his presidency, showed signs of cracking: about one-fourth of Republicans said they do not believe the war was worth fighting and a roughly equal number opposed the troop increase.
Despite the poll, I’m not hopeful that this will be enough to stop the president’s surge plan — he is, after all, a bit of a megalomaniac. But it is about time that Congress has decided to use its constitutional authorities and rein in this out-of-control presidency.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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Hank Kalet 