Yesterday Congress made itself weak. It renounced power and authority to change our foreign policy, effectively ceding all power to the President. We knew already that Bush and the Republicans have arrogated supreme authority to themselves. What was so sad about yesterday's capitulation bill is that, really for the first time, the leaders of the Democratic Congress FREELY GAVE HIM THOSE POWERS. It wasn't a normal political defeat, and it wasn't because of the right wing noise machine. It was a self-inflicted defeat. The Democratic Party does not believe in itself or in the people who elected them.
A basic truth of politics is that people who don't project power don't have it. The Dems have no confidence in their own authority to end the war.
"But they would have killed us in the battle for public opinion, by accusing us of stabbing the troops in the back."
Exactly: you have no confidence in your ability to lead the public depate, or to assert basic facts in the face of militaristic propaganda. You granted all along that this fight was about "funding the troops," not about funding the war. You accepted Bush's absurd allegation that Congress, not the President and DOD, is responsible for logistics and supplies in the field.
Say what you will about Bush. At least he has the confidence of his convictions and of the power that he wields in our system of government.