The ultimate irony

The irony seems to be lost on everyone.

Let me start at the beginning:

The Legislative Branch (Congress) decides what the federal budget is. For years, this has meant that they allow the Executive Branch (White House) to write the budget and then the Legislators will look at it and decide whether or not to approve it. If they don’t, they will rewrite it and make something new. In either case, the budget is then sent to the President to sign into law.

Bush has made it his principle to boost the budget of the Pentagon and for warmaking in the budget but request funds for Iraq and Afghanistan separately. This has meant that instead of posting a nearly $600 billion defense budget, they can claim $500 (still record proportions). This has also served the president as implying continued authorization of his wars of choice.

As I’ve said before, Congress has more power than simply “the power of the purse,” but for argument’s sake, in separating these provisions, Bush is allowing Congress to exercise that right.

The wrinkle came in the last couple of weeks and is being finalized as we ‘speak’. The Legislative Branch has authorized over $120 billion in funding for the war this year with a required timetable for withdrawal. Bush has pledged to veto the bill.

Did you catch it? The media hasn’t. Bush asks for something, gets it, and then rejects it. And calls the Democrats names for ‘obstructing’ the war. The media has moved on as if Bush has already vetoed, suggesting that the new talk is how does Bush get the money anyway.

Here’s how it is. If Bush vetoes, he is rejecting his own war-funding. He is putting the troops in danger. He is putting U.S. chances for success in danger. He is making it more likely that the bogeyman will hate us. It isn’t the Democrats. It is President George W. Bush who is doing this with the power of the pen. A lonely man sitting in a giant room, far, far away from combat, let alone Congress, is putting his own military in danger because he doesn’t want to play well with others.

None of this is new, of course. It is Bush, with a big help from Rumsfeld and Cheney, that underfunded the soldiers on the ground, spending their money on high-tech weaponry that is useless to the occupation. It is Bush that didn’t give the body armor to every soldier and armor on Hummers. The Legislative Branch gave him unprecedented clearance and wealth to perform this war of choice. No president in history has gotten such an opportunity, and Bush couldn’t make sure that the military was properly prepared. Considering the decision to invade Iraq was being made in 2000 (before the election), one would think that three years would have been enough to properly prepare, but not this president. It is Bush that has cut funding for military hospitals, withheld military pensions, stretched the military so thin that it may be on the verge of the breaking point. He has made patriotism unpopular at a time when people were so desperate to love their country. Bush has single-handedly decimated our military. So no, I don’t buy that a war-funding bill with a timetable will ruin the world. In fact, it was what Bush asked for, what Congress needed to do, and what the people wanted. A veto of that kind of true win-win-win proposition and George will become the biggest heel in history (if he isn’t already).

Bush, it is time to start playing well with others. The war is over; its time to go home.