Bush accepts responsibility for the war in Iraq

Congress has recently decided that it has to manage the war in Iraq because the president hasn't done a good job. It wants to set a timetable for the withdrawal of troops.

The reasoning for this is that the war is very unpopular with the American people due to its cost and instability in Iraq. Also there were no weapons of mass destruction; therefore, the war was started under false pretenses.

It should be remembered that when the war began the great majority of the people and the Congress were for it. Saddam wanted the world to think that he had WMDs, and there was no possible way to be sure he didn't have them; it's not logically possible to prove a negative.

The important item to consider is that when we decided to take down Saddam by force and crossed the border into Iraq, we immediately acquired the responsibility to put that country back on its feet. Simply stated, in a store, if you break an item, you bought it.

Instead, Congress has decided that after breaking the item, they want nothing to do with it. We made a mistake, so let the Iraqis suffer the consequences. It's more important to them to give in to the politics of the moment.

This behavior is shameful. The vote was a party-line vote except for two senators from Nebraska that voted against it before they voted for it. Many votes were bought with unrelated pork.

The only profile in courage goes to Sen. Lieberman. It's a good thing that the president will veto the bill requiring retreat from Iraq. At least he has taken responsibility for the war. Diego Cruz Thousand Oaks