Dueling Surrender Plans

If the Democrats actually worked this hard at helping prosecute the war in Iraq, perhaps the job would be finished much faster and we could divert resources elsewhere in the War on Terror. Instead, they continue to seek ways to lose. This current scheme is doomed to failure and would be vetoed anyway.

Democrats offer 2 plans for pullout

Senate and House Democrats yesterday announced competing legislation that for the first time would set deadlines to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq -- by fall 2008 -- provoking a veto threat from the White House.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber's measure, which accelerates the timetable for a pullout if the administration fails to certify that Iraq has met certain benchmarks for progress, will be attached to the nearly $100 billion in supplemental spending that President Bush is seeking this year for fighting in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

"Our bill calls for the redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq so that we can focus more fully on the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan," the California Democrat said.

It's not just in Afghanistan, Stretch, it's worldwide.

Still, no matter what cockamamie plan they conjure up, they're being dragged down by their lunatic fringe on the far left, as noted in the Opinion Journal today.

The meltdown among House Democrats over Iraq is rightly being described as the first big test of Nancy Pelosi's leadership. It's also an early example of just how much political damage the antiwar left is capable of inflicting on their new speaker.

Ms. Pelosi has been backed into a tight corner over President Bush's $100 billion request for war funding. Hoping to quell a revolt from a liberal bloc that wants out of Iraq, pronto, the speaker unveiled a new, new plan yesterday that includes a timetable for withdrawal--to begin as early as July. Ms. Pelosi needs to win this vote, the first real showdown over Iraq. But it's becoming increasingly clear she can do that only by sacrificing her moderate wing, which opposes her plan and could pay heavily for it in next year's election.

We can only hope that will be the case.