Have they taken the final step?

The budget battle between the Democrats and the Administration over funding has moved to the point of ridiculousness. It's a disgusting shame that people like Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, and Harry Reid are not only playing politics with funding the troops but are accusing the Administration of doing the same.

In fact, it's going a step further. The new stance of the Democrats is that the only two options for the Administration are either engaging in operations in Iraq absent of funding or precipitously, immediately retreating just now as the war has moved fully into a wind-down victory stage. What is particularly galling is that the Democrats seem to have moved beyond their immoral use of the troops as political pawns, moved beyond merely hoping that the U.S. loses the war in Iraq but now appear to be actively working to ensure our defeat.

Beyond unacceptable, beyond immoral, if the Democrats do not back down from this push towards defeat for the troops, back down from their attempts to deny funding for essential war operations, back down from their desire to turn victory into defeat then they are clearly and unambiguously operating at odds with the country. Holding to these attempts to ensure defeat is not patriotic descent. It is treason.

Democrats: Don't do this. Support the troops. Give them the money they need to be safe. Let them stay in Iraq to complete the job they're so close to completing. You say that you're patriotic. If so, stop using the troops as pawns; stop trying to push for our country's defeat. We are a nation at war. Start acting like it.

Dems Says Pentagon Using Scare Tactics
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - In their latest tussle with the White House on the Iraq war, two leading House Democrats said Tuesday the Pentagon was using scare tactics to try to goad Congress into passing another war spending bill.

And Reps. David Obey and John Murtha said they won't budge. Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Murtha, D-Pa., head of the panel's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said they won't support more money for the war this year unless President Bush accepts a timetable for troop withdrawals.

Last week, the House passed a $50 billion bill that would keep operations afloat for several more months, but sets a goal of bringing most troops home by December 2008. After Bush threatened to veto the measure, Senate Republicans blocked it.

"If the president wants that $50 billion released, all he has to do is to call the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and ask him to stop blocking it," Obey told reporters.