Salazar: Troops Say to Cut Funding

Via Greg Sargent Sen. Ken Salazar had an awakening experience on his recent trip to Iraq, one that could change his vote on funding for the war, according to the Denver Post. This change of heart, he says, was some service members telling him they wanted Congress to cut off funding.

Salazar told reporters that he'd only support defunding "under certain conditions."

"If we cannot work with the White House and with our Republican colleagues to develop legislation that will have our effort in Iraq move forward in a new defined mission, then I think we need to look at other possibilities," Salazar said in a conference call with reporters....

He would only advocate cutting funding, he said, "if it could be done in a way that would not harm our troops in any way.

"If it could be done then I think we ought to take a look at it," Salazar said.

Those are certainly conditions that could be met. No one in the Senate or anywhere else who is seriously considering cutting off funds for the war would do so in a way that would endanger the troops. Obviously, the troops understand that, or they wouldn't be telling United State Senators that defunding is a good idea.

This is a marked improvement from Salazar's previous Iraq efforts, the toothless bill he sponsored with Sen. Lamar Alexander that would have done little more than expressed the sense of the Senate that the ISG report would be a good thing to follow, despite the fact that the recommendations have been made largely obsolete by the passage of time and that pesky reality.