Reid says Iraq funds tied to troop pullout

They are playing politics with our troops again...

From the boston globe:

Senate majority leader Harry Reid said yesterday that Democrats won't approve more money for the Iraq war this year unless President Bush agrees to begin bringing troops home.
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By the end of the week, the House and Senate planned to vote on a $50 billion measure for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would require Bush to initiate troop withdrawals immediately with the goal of ending combat by December 2008.

If Bush vetoes the bill, "then the president won't get his $50 billion," Reid, Democrat of Nevada, told reporters at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, made a similar statement last week in a closed-door caucus meeting.

The tough rhetoric does not necessarily foretell another veto showdown with Bush on the war. Similar legislation has routinely fallen short of the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate. It is possible the upcoming bill will sink, in which case Democrats would probably wait until next year to revisit the issue.

But their remarks reflect an emerging Democratic strategy on the war: force congressional Republicans and Bush to accept a timetable for troop withdrawals or turn Pentagon accounting processes into a bureaucratic nightmare.

If Democrats refuse to send Bush the $50 billion, the military would have to drain its annual budget to keep the wars afloat. Last week, Congress approved a $471 billion budget for the military that pays mostly for nonwar-related projects, such as depot maintenance and weapons development.

The tactic stops short of outright blocking money from being used on the war, an approach that has divided Democrats and fueled Republican criticism that Democrats are eager to abandon the troops. But forcing the Pentagon into a painful budget dance spares Democrats from having to write a blank check for the unpopular Iraq war.

"We will and we must pay for whatever cost to protect the American people," said House Democratic leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland. "But tragically, unfortunately, incredibly, the war is not making us safer."

In a recent letter to Congress, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England warned that the Army was on track to run out of money by February.

A White House spokesman said Bush would veto any legislation that sets a timetable for troop withdrawals.

This is B.S. they are trying to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. They know we are starting to succeed in Iraq and they cannot allow that to happen. These cockroaches are politically invested in defeat in Iraq. The whole thing makes me sick.

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