The Democrats are pretending to support "a new direction" in Iraq. Both the House and the Senate have passed versions of a supplemental appropriations bill that include timelines for withdrawing troops from Iraq. So where is the pretense?

Both timelines exempt troops engaged in training Iraqi forces, conducting "special operations" and protecting diplomatic enclaves inside Iraq. These exemptions would allow Bush to keep 80,000 or more troops in that country, and still be in compliance with the law. The Senate version includes a nonbinding requirement to remove nonexempted troops one year from now. The House version extends that lax timeline an extra six months.

Why are Congressional Democrats allowing the occupation of Iraq to continue indefinitely? Because, according to Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, they believe it to be the politically less risky path. If they act now to end the occupation, Democrats fear they will be painted by the Republicans as having "lost Iraq." If they fund "business as usual" while making symbolic gestures opposing the war, they can continue to pose as the "anti-war party." Democratic politicians are calculating that this strategy will produce further gains for them in 2008.

The differences between the two supplemental appropriations bills need to be resolved before the final bill comes to a vote. Before then, it is important to tell Democratic members of Congress to stop the pretense, and to stop playing with American and Iraqi lives. All of the troops need to come home, and long before the 2008 elections.