Iraq War: Please Explain to Me

[Mike03]

I am not the brightest bulb when it comes to Congressional rules and protocol. Yes, I know we are in the majority, but only by a very slim margin, but...

What technical rules of the House or Senate are preventing our leaders, congresspeople and senators from simply tabling or shutting down financing of the war?

Also, so what if we break the rules? What happened to non-violent protest?

Isn't this what was done in Viet Nam? Did they not shut down financing of the war?

There's no excuse not to try, is there? Or, what am I missing?

According to polls, the vast majority of Americans detest this war, detest Bush and his asshole cronies, and desperately want an end to this godforsaken war. So, it can't be fear on the part of the Dems; we all want this fucking thing to end, so why would they be afraid to end it if they could?

Sorry for asking this dumb question. I am truly at wit's end now and don't understand why my elected officials are not trying harder to put an end to this insanity.

[MNDemNY]

1. Yes! They must take action to fund the war.

They ,procedurally, could simply fail to take action, thus cutting off funding. They could do this.

[K Gardner]

2. Nothing procedural about it.. they're afraid they'll be seen as soft on terror in the

coming election. Plus Bush managed to tie funding to Not Giving The People Their Well Deserved Tax Refunds and threatened to lay off bunches of people and Dems got sceeeered.

[Truth2Tell]

3. They don't stop the war because

they are afraid the Republicans would beat them up politically. They fear the media and the Pukes accusing them of being soft on terra. They know Bush and the Republicans would play up the "abandoning the troops" angle and they don't believe they have the ability to effectively fight back. They are too chicken shit to take this fight head-on, call Bush's bluff and throw the shit right back in his face. Political fear.

They absolutely have the power to stop the war (only takes 41, see: Dodd filibuster). They choose not to. And to make matters worse, they try to lie to us and claim they just can't do anything. That's the insulting part.

[rAVES]

4. Theres a powerful wing of the democratic party that wants the war too.

who gives a dam what the peons think? there is moneys to be made.