I applaud the Presidents veto of the irresponsible and dangerous Iraq supplemental passed last week by a narrow majority in Congress.
This legislation was the worst of all worlds. It would have imposed on our soldiers a binding deadline of October 1, 2007, to begin withdrawal, regardless of conditions on the ground, regardless of the recommendations of our military leaders in short, regardless of reality on October 1. This was a deadline as arbitrary as it was inflexible a deadline for defeat.
This legislation would have taken life-and-death decisions about how, where, and against whom our troops can fight and replaced the judgment of our military commanders in Iraq with the judgment of politicians in Washington.
The Iraq war is not lost but if this supplemental had become law, it would have been.
General Petraeus warned us last week that, Iraq is, in fact, the central front of Al Qaedas global campaign against us.
The big question before us, then, is whether we respond to Al Qaedas terrorism by turning away, as it hopes we do abandoning the future of Iraq, the Middle East and ultimately our own security to the very people responsible for the terrible atrocities we see in Iraq or whether we stand and fight.
Rather than undermining General Petraeus and handing Al Qaeda a victory, Congress should take swift and responsible action to get General Petraeus and our troops in the field the support that they need to prevail.
It is clear that there are not enough votes to override the Presidents veto of a mandated withdrawal from Iraq, so another attempt to impose one would have no effect other than to further delay the funding our troops need. Our soldiers are making extraordinary sacrifices every day on our behalf. The least we can do now is to get them the support they need without delay.