I don't buy the spin in the progressive community that this Iraq supplemental bill was some sort of total capitulation to Bush. Ideally we would have the votes to override a Bush veto and responsibly fund a pullout of our troops. I also wish we would have not passed the funding bill at all, which is the only thing that would truly end the war. However, we had even less support for that.
The truth is, the bill that Bush just signed is a better bill for ending the war than the one he vetoed about a month ago.
The Democrats won at least two key victories in this bill (not even counting some of the other worthwhile programs that got money like Hurricane relief, children's health insurance, etc).
- A increase in the minimum wage, without the tax giveaways to businesses that Republicans demanded in return. Min wage will increase from $5.15 to $7.25/hr over the next two years.
- That the bill only funds the war until September; Bush and the Republicans were demanding the entire year's worth of funding. We'll get another vote and it leaves the door open for proper defunding in the future. The bill Bush vetoed didn't even call for a withdrawal until October.
In fact, this outcome is SUPERIOR to the first Iraq War Supplemental bill that Bush vetoed. Bush would have ignored/waived any of the non-binding requirements to withdraw and he would have had the money to stay in Iraq another year. We get the min wage increase, plus we can still force a withdrawal in October. The fact that people are talking about defunding as a serious option now and many Democrats support it(when nobody was at the start of this saga) is also a win.