Amongst all the ill-will created by the President’s move to withhold funding from the troops in Iraq, we’ve lost sight of one thing. The funding of the Iraq War will not go on endlessly without an endgame in site and that the same funding will not just be a bottomless pit of money without some hard progress being made.

Of course the President vetoed this.

We’ve been stuck in Iraq for a long time now, and part of the reason is that there’s been unbelievably poor leadership during the time we’re there. Instead of doing the job right, getting it done, and leaving, we’ve engaged in attempted nation building on a scale that’s incomprehensible considering the country, and improbable considering the various ethnic hostilities there. Instead, we just keep saying, “Oh this will work…” and we add more soldiers, more money, and more lives into a burning pile that isn’t getting us any closer to being able to actually leave.

I understand progress is being made. Yes there’s a constitution. Yes there is the makings of a police force. Yes we even have some cities that are okay. But none of that is a positive move toward us leaving Iraq, which is what most of America wants right now. Mr. “It’s never been about stay the course” seems to want us to believe that if we just stay the course, things are going to heal themselves.

Anyone who buys into that is a moron, and I don’t care what side of the political fence you build your outhouse on.

There are a few simple facts as they relate to Iraq right now…

1. A bunch of our allies have already decided that it ain’t working and left or have plans to do so soon.

2. Iraqis still aren’t defending themselves and we’re still doing much of the heavy lifting with regards to security.

3. We’re sinking more money into Iraq on a daily basis without any signs that there’s an endgame in mind for leaving or what would constitue a finished job.

4. At the same time we’re being told things are better, we’re told that things are bad and we need to supply the troops with what they need.

5. At the same time we’re being told we need to supply the troops with what we need, the bill that gives them that was just vetoed by a man who looks utterly clueless sitting in the Oval Office.

Was the bill poisoned purposely so the President would veto it? Fucking duh. If you think otherwise you’re a moron, too. But, the fact that it was doomed to failure simply because it said you can’t have a bottomless supply of money and this war can’t go on forever is proof positive that the guy in the oval office is just as politically motivated as the guys who meet with Howard Dean to know what urinal to take a piss in.

Enough of this win / lose machismo bullshit. Thousands upon thousands of lives later, there’s no way to walk out of Iraq saying “We won.” That opportunity passed a long time ago. The best thing we can do is to take the soldiers who sacrificed so much to be there and bring them back where they belong.

Home.

I don’t want to see another soldier’s life wasted because our President doesn’t want to be called a war-loser, and I certainly don’t want to see the war go on indefinitely just so after a few thousand more deaths we can just say, “See? We stayed the course.”