07 MAY 07 / "Impasse on Iraq"

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are contemplating their next move in the wake of President Bush's veto of their Iraq war appropriations bill.

Last week, Hillary Clinton and Robert Byrd sponsor legislation to deauthorize the war by 11 OCT, the 5-year anniversary of the original authorization. Such a measure would put the war's continued prosecution in jeopardy, would further embolden our enemies, and would be complicit in the fall of Iraq's elected government.

The ball is in the court of congressional Democrats, but the problem for the president is that they can choose to keep it. Under the Constitution, Congress has the power of the purse and the power to declare war. The question is do they have the power to declare defeat in a manner that would not require the signature of the president or a 2/3 majority vote?

The impasse is effectively a political game of chicken with each side waiting for the American people to decide who wins. If public opposition to the war continues to rise, the Democrats will be able to pressure  enough Republicans to join them in prematurely ending the war despite the fact that General David Petraeus is executing on a plan to bring security and stability to the Iraqi people and legitimacy to the Iraqi government. There are encouraging signs of progress, particularly in Anbar Province, where Al Qaeda is being routed by Marines and soldiers with the help of Sunni tribal leaders.

I hope Congress does not choose to exercise its power, but we are governed by the Constitution. If resistance to the war in Iraq rises to increasingly high levels, then the impasse will be broken and the troops will be required to start coming home.

The president is running out of time. As General Petraeus understands, the clock is ticking. The president and the general must demonstrate progress in order to sway public opinion. This will be exceedingly difficult considering the media's reporting of our progress in Iraq. While we have tragically lost more than 3,400 Americans in Iraq, most Americans aren't well versed in military history and aren't aware that more than 6,800 U.S. Marines were killed in action during just 35 days of fighting on Iwo Jima.

Congress does reflect the will of the people. That's the way the founders of the nation and framers of the Constitution intended. If the people want out of Iraq, they may be wrong and it may be a mistake, but the Congress will be well within its right to act. The American people must be constantly reminded that we can only be defeated if we stop fighting.