Today they held the vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to end the war in Iraq (HR 1591, “U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health, and Iraq Accountability Act.”

It passed 218-212. That was a nice message to send the terrorists. They should probably call the bill, “Dear Terrorists: We will stop fighting by September 2008.”

There’s a very slim chance that it will make it to the President’s desk, but the damage has been done to the United States and, more importantly, to the morale of our military personnel. President Bush said he would veto the bill if it makes it to his desk. The Bill would have to be reconciled with what the senate will do next week. It does not look like the House or the Senate would have enough votes to override the veto. But, the damage is done.

The Western Word (TWW) believes this vote tells the terrorists that if they hold on long enough, then we will cut and run.

TWW does not want to see a publicly disclosed timeline as this is something that only a few people need to know. And as I blogged about earlier, I don’t want to see a war funding bill contain any extra money except that which is needed to fight the war. The bill contained money (about $20 billion) for domestic programs that had nothing to do with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, in simple math, it took the democrats $20 billion to win this vote.

The 218 (all democrats, except for two Republicans) rejoiced at the passage, applauding loudly after the vote was announced. Speaker Pelosi was so full of glee and she had such a big smile on her face, that it was almost comical, if it was not so sad.

One thing I feel about this vote is that we for sure know who’s against the troops and who’s for them in the U.S. House.