MoveOn's Poll on Iraq Vote: VOTE YES

Many of you who are MoveOn members, like I am, are getting an email from Eli Pariser, asking whether MoveOn should support the House Democratic plan to set a deadline for ending the war on the supplemental appropriations bill.

Please, I urge you, vote yes.

This bill is not what I or most of you would write. However, it is the most far-reaching step Congress will have taken in the last 4 years to bring this god-forsaken war to an end.

Over the past few years, progressive demands of Congress on the war have included the right to debate the war or a plan for withdrawal. This bill goes further and sets a date certain for when US troops have to be out of Iraq. That's a major step forward.

While we would have hoped to go all the way now that we control Congress, the votes aren't there. We should keep pressuring Blue Dogs to do more, but as Rummy would say, you take the vote with the Congress you have.

House Democratic Leadership (for whom I don't work) has been trying their hardest to cobble together a bill that can get the support of 218 members of Congress. The easiest thing, of course, would be to pass a bill that only includes the President's request and no restrictions - that would easily get 218 votes (Republicans + Blue Dogs) - but that would be an abdication of their responsibility to end the war. Instead, they're trying to present the best anti-war bill that can pass the House (we saw in the Senate this week just how hard passing something is).

If this bill fails, it will throw the Democrats into disarray, show the Republicans that we're not in control, and make it harder to do anything on the war (or other important issues) in the future. However, if it does fail, let it fail because of the Blue Dogs and their weak knees, not because progressives are willing to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I know the response - I feel it too: we have an obligation to end the war, politics be dammned. Well, this is the largest step towards that objective we'll be able to take on this single vote.

I'm glad progressives - myself included - insisted that this bill be as far-reaching as possible. However, negotiations have concluded, and we have to decide yes or no. If it fails, in all likelyhood, we'll see a vote on the President's request alone, no restrictions, no conditions, no progress.

For the sake of ending the war, encourage MoveOn to support the Democratic plan.

UPDATE- For the sake of clarity, here's what the bill actually requires:

-by july, iraq has to be showing progress towards bush's benchmarks. if not, it requires a 180 day withdrawal.

-by october, it has to have met those benchmarks. if not, it requires a 180 day withdrawal.

-no matter what happens, by next march, it requires a 180 day withdrawal, meaning troops home by september 2008 at the latest.