It seems so simple to us: congress has the power of the purse; it takes money--lots and lots of money--to run the war in Iraq; the Democrats control congress; therefore, the Democrats can stop the war by defunding it. So why are they so reluctant to do so?
The answers most often given are fear of being painted as weak on defense yet again. Or tarred with the anti-military brush. Even that they are unpatriotic. The Democrats seem a lock to increase their majorities in both houses and snag the White house as well. Why risk it?
But the cost of defunding is not purely political. The Democrats understand clearly who they are facing in this showdown. It hasn't been said in public that I have heard, but I suspect the Democrats' greatest fear is that if they defund, the Decider will decide to leave the troops in place anyway.
Ending the war by defunding it assumes a rational actor in the Whitehouse. No money for the war, therefore the troops must come home. Not so. That is a rational decision for someone who sees our troops and Iraqi civilians as more than pawns or props for photo ops. The Decider is not that guy.
Imagine no appropriations are made for Iraq. The months pass and the money the Pentagon is able to divert from other priorities is dried up. The soldiers in the field actually start to have shortages: fuel, amunition for heavy weapons, replacement parts. All of this will be caught on camera by some dutiful dispenser of the Whitehouse narrative from the MSM. Congress has left our troops asses hanging in the breeze. And eventually, American soldiers or Marines will die because a Medivac helicopter had to limit its runs due to limited fuel, or a relief convoy to some small outpost can't roll and the outpost gets over-run.
Yes, that would be a political nightmare for Democrats, but let's give them some credit as empathetic human beings. Do you think they want to leave the fate of these men and women in Bush's hands this way? Make no mistake, Bush is such a megalomaniac that he would leave them out there unfunded to fend for themselves, all to protect his legacy and avoid any admission--EVER--that he was wrong. He would sacrifice more lives and blame the Dems.
So the Democrats have to calculate which will cost more lives: stay the present course until we elect a Democrat to the Whitehouse or defund the war in Iraq in the vain hope that Bush will do the rational, Compassionate Conservative thing.