The White House is pushing the meme that it is already withdrawing troops from Iraq, and the AP picks it right up:
House Democrats pushed through a $50 billion bill for the Iraq war Wednesday night that would require President Bush to start bringing troops home in coming weeks with a goal of ending combat by December 2008.
The legislation, passed 218-203, was largely a symbolic jab at Bush, who already has begun reducing force levels but opposes a congressionally mandated timetable on the war. And while the measure was unlikely to pass in the Senate â let alone overcome a presidential veto â Democrats said they wanted voters to know they weren’t giving up.
This of course is a reference to the fact that some elements of the ballyhooed surge are coming to an end. It reminds me of the old retail trick of artificially inflating a price so that you can call the actual price a “sale.”
