The Veto

The bill is unacceptable because it “substitutes the opinions of politicians for the judgments of our military commanders,” the president said in a nationally televised address to explain why he was vetoing a bill that would also provide more than $100 billion in emergency spending for the war.

Remember when Bush used to claim that he based his decisions on the Iraq war on the judgement of the military commanders on the ground? That the war would not be run from Washington DC? The only problem was that General Casey disagreed with Bush's escalation strategy. Instead of following the advice of the military commander on the ground, Bush removed him and put Patreaus in his place -- a general who agreed with Bush's new Iraq strategy. It's all up to the generals... until they stop following orders from Washington. But it's the Democrats who aren't listening to the generals... or the rest of the world... or the American people.

Bush blamed Democrats for trying to send an empty political statement and added: “They’ve sent their message, and now it’s time to put politics behind us and support our troops with the funds.”

The executive branch and the legislative branch are two equal branches of government, but it's the fault of the Democrats, again, who just sent Bush the money he asked for. The Democrats are playing politics when they disagree with Bush and they must automatically defer to the executive when it concerns Iraq (and presumably anything else.) Bush has vetoed funding for our troops because the bill contained a provision he disagreed with. He has denied funding for the troops. This must be repeated over and over and over -- that Bush is holding up funds for troops on the battlefield.

So how is this conflict between Congress and Bush resolved? A compromise? A "compromise" in the eyes of Bush will be removing the provision for troops to be out in '08. It will mean receiving the same type of rubberstamped bill he has received in years past from the Republican Congress. So if Democrats remove the provision, their power in Congress will be rendered useless. There might as well be 100 Republicans in the Senate.

Congress is not "defying" (as the media repeatedly suggests) Bush. The Constitution has granted them equal power. I predict, however, that the Democrats will send Bush a generic bill with no timetables and the war will continue unabated. Expect no meaningful change until '09 at the earliest.