By Cernig
By now you've probably heard that the House today passed the Troop Withdrawal Bill by 218 to 208. Thirteen Democrats voted against the bill, two Republicans voted for it. Mind you, several of those Dems voted "nay" - like Kuchinich - because they wanted there to be no funding provision at all.
As expected, the White House and Republicans are piling on the "surrender" talk. The White House statement said, bluntly, "The President calls on the Senate to quickly pass this legislation so the President can veto it."
Game on. Bush has to know that any bill that comes his way is now going to have conditions attached to it. He's betting that the Dems will blink because he believes that they are weak surrenderers. He's wrong, of course, becuase the impetus behind all this isn't a wish to surrender, it's a wish to face facts and save lives which has the backing of the American people.
Still, I wish some on the Hill would do their homework. When Petreaus told them sectarian deaths in Baghdad were a third of pre-surge reates, I wish someone had asked about overall death rates including suicide bombs (which aren't counted as sectarian). Most counts say overall deaths have hardly dipped at all despite the flood of troops - but it's difficult to be sure since the Iraqi government refuses to release the official figures. Convenient, eh?
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