Congress Can Stop the Iraq War

Following a pattern set when Congress passed supplemental funding for the Iraq War last May, major media outlets continued to "explain"the politics of the war in incomplete and misleading ways.

The point made by these media outlets again and again is that the Democrats have little power to affect policy in Iraq. This sentiment is also voiced by many politicians, many of whom consider themselves opponents of the war. But passing a filibuster or veto-proof bill is not their only option.

As the Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Dan Balz (9/10/07) put it: "Because of a Senate rule requiring 60 votes to shut off debate and 67 votes to overturn a veto, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid faced an almost impossible challenge. Even if all his troops stood together, he started with just 49 votes."

This sort of analysis was used to explain the Democrats' need to compromise with Republicans, watering down a firm withdrawal date in the hopes of winning bipartisan support. "Senior Democrats now say they are willing to rethink their push to establish a withdrawal deadline of next spring if doing so will attract the 60 Senate votes needed to prevail,"reported the New York Times' Carl Hulse (9/5/07).

This approach was endorsed in an Associated Press report (9/11/07) by Matthew Lee: "If Republican support for the war holds, as it might for now, Democrats would have to soften their approach if they want to pass an anti-war proposal. But they remain under substantial pressure by voters and politically influential anti-war groups to settle for nothing less than ordering troop withdrawals or cutting off money for the war - legislation that has little chances of passing."

The problem with all these accounts is that Congress does not have to pass legislation to bring an end to the war in Iraq -- it simply has to block passage of any bill that would continue to fund the war. This requires not 67 or 60 Senate votes, or even 51, but just 41-- the number of senators needed to maintain a filibuster and prevent a bill from coming up for a vote. [Editor's note: A simple majority in the House could accomplish the same thing.]

In other words, the Democrats have more than enough votes to end the Iraq War -- if they choose to do so. The Democratic leadership may believe, rightly or wrongly, that such a strategy would entail unacceptable political costs. But that's very different from being unable to affect policy.

To insist, as many media outlets have, that the Constitution makes it impossible for Congress to stop the war obscures the actual choices facing the nation -- by confusing "can't"with "won't."