And the Afghanistan war marches on. The House approved funds on Thursday to fund the troop surge that Obama has proposed in advance of next summer’s troop withdrawal. The catch, though, is that the withdrawal did not get approved: so what we have is an approval of funds for more troops but a rejection of any sort of withdrawal timetable. Not exactly what had been promised or pushed for by the administration…

The Pentagon had asked for the funds to be approved and on Obama’s desk before the July 4 recess, but since the House actually added more money, it will have to go to the Senate for further debate and passage, so the funds will not be available until later in July. $33 billion. In fact, the delay in funds being approved may lead to some Pentagon employees being laid off until the legislation makes its way to Obama, which will hinder both the advance of the troops and the effectiveness of the program.

I can’t help but think about all of the other issues that are going on domestically, how much good $33 billion could and would do for the country if we directed those funds to something that was more geared toward dealing with the economic crisis- or even the BP crisis. And the additional billions that the House added do make allowances for disaster relief funds, so there is hope on that front.

The fact that the war funds actually made it through the House at all is a bit of a victory (for the war, anyway).

"I do not believe this war is anything but a fool's errand. If I had my way, I would never bring this to the floor," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey.

The non-military spending passed 239-182, the war funding passed 215-210. So there is a clear leaning toward spending money on disaster relief rather than on the war itself. And I think that’s good. The war is not going well. It’s been close to 10 years and it’s hard to point to any part of it and say we are completely successful. Karzai is bogged down with new accusations of corruption, and the commander of our forces just got booted for criticizing the Washington support.

The bill added $4 billion in economic aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as “$10 billion to help avert teacher layoffs, $700 million for security on the border with Mexico and $142 million to help the oil-sullied Gulf Coast.”

"If American money is going to be building a nation, I'd like it to be mine," said Representative Louise Slaughter, chairwoman of the Rules Committee.

Indeed. We’ve already spent $345 billion on the war (wow!), and everyone has an opinion, from Republicans who are upset about adding money for things other than the troop surge to Democrats who are upset about continuing a war that they feel is an impossible situation to win.

So the basic take is that the House is divided- people will only support so much of the war, and the support is splintering. Will we have the votes and the momentum to make the troop surge and the last year of the be effective?

Photo Credit: The U.S. Army