Cut and Run Party

As if we needed more proof that the "war on terror (tm)" is nothing more than theater for the GOP, the New York Times reports this today, that the Republican congress allocated $20 million in 2006 for a victory celebration in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since we are unlikely to have such a celebration, they are rolling it over into next year's budget:

Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for this past year was a lump sum of $20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation’s capital “for commemoration of success” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not surprisingly, the money was not spent.

Now Congressional Republicans are saying, in effect, maybe next year. A paragraph written into spending legislation and approved by the Senate and House allows the $20 million to be rolled over into 2007.

There are many tragic, amusing and ironic angles to this, but the one I find most interesting is that Republicans, as recently as this month, actually believe that our troops will leave victorious in the next year. Have they been reading the news? And this is the party that is serious about national security?