After much partisan deliberation, the House of Representatives passed a resolution Friday that calls President Bush to task on upping troop levels in Iraq.
Sort of.
In a vote of 246-to-182, with 17 Republicans supporting it, the Democrats were able to push their nonbinding resolution though the House that decried the war, of course, supported the troops.
While it's nice to see that the Democratic Congress, or even Congress in general, has found the backbone it has so sorely lacked since 2001, the passage of the resolution in the House isn't the final solution.
First of all, the resolution was killed in the Senate on Saturday, losing by only a 49-47 vote.
Second of all, even if it did pass, it was a nonbinding resolution, which means that it only had the power to shake Congress' collective fist at the Bush administration and say, "Cut it out, you guys!"
Not exactly an awe-inspiring bit of legislation.
It does, however, demonstrate that no matter how slowly or weakly they choose to go about it, the legislative branch has finally decided to start exercising those "checks and balances" they learned about in civics class but forgot after Sept. 11, 2001 — no doubt in a frenzy of patriotism.
It also sends a clear message to President Bush that no amount of handlers and staff members can hide the truth from him — the American people are getting fed up with the war.
In an effort to attract bipartisan action on the resolution, the Democrats wisely stressed the trite but true "support the troops" angle.
Sadly, there is still a significant amount of voters out there who cannot discern between "anti-war" and "anti-troop." And by stating ad nauseam that this resolution "supports the troops" — as if there were resolutions out there that steadfastly were "against" the troops — they may finally calm some fears that the anti-war movement is not out to get the people in the armed services.
It's understood that Democrats stand on shaky ground when it comes to their newfound congressional power, and while it's nice they got this resolution through the House, it should have had some teeth.
It's great the House has shown its displeasure with the war, but hey — so have some citizens.
The difference is that representatives are actually in a position to do something about it. Slaps on the wrists are fine and good for making statements, but the time for making statements ended 3,100 troops ago. Now is the time for action.
If Congress wants to do something about the war, it needs to step up, take a chance and introduce some bold legislature to force Bush's hand to pull our forces out. This nonbinding resolution must be backed up with legislation that is capable of enacting change.
If you want to "support the troops" so badly, start taking steps to get them out of Iraq.
