Sophie's Choice

Fight Bush on the funding and expose the troops to increased danger or fund the troops and increase their safety.

There are other ways to end the war. The funding fight places the troops in the crosshairs. Like two parents using the children to fight with each other it is unfair to those caught in the middle.

Bush will not voluntarily bring the troops home. To bring the troops home they must first remove Bush. There are many ways that could happen shortly. DC is rife with scandals right now any of which could explode in Bush's face and bring him down.

The Democrats in congress did not make an impossible choice between two equally deserving outcomes and they were not forced to do it - both parts required for a "Sophie's Choice". What the Democrats in the House did was choose to fund the occupation. "Funding" is active, not passive. They should come out and explain, truthfully, why they chose to fund the occupation of Iraq. If they say (and mean it truthfully) that they were afraid that Bush would harm the soldiers in a stubborn attempt to have his way, then he must be impeached. There can be no greater urgency than the misuse and abuse of soldiers by the CIC for immediate removal from office. If they do not think that Bush must be impeached, then they must not be telling truth about their fear for the safety of the soldiers. They really can't have it both ways. If the congress cannot do its job for fear that the President would retaliate by harming soldiers under his command, then impeachment is the only recourse - there are no others.

If Bush has, in fact, become a dictator, and they are simply afraid of standing against him, then they should say so and be done with it.

outcomes (a showdown with Bush that will hurt the troops as he vetos and vetos ... or... caving now). So it is a Sophie's choice. Bush and his neocon friends have done it all along to the dems. The difference now is that it is less frequent since GOP lost the house and Senate. But we will see this again. A Sophie's Choice is a main tactic of the Rove WH.

where one has to choose between a single bad option or nothing at all, where the nothing also has negative consequences...

Stopping funding immediately does not mean they are stuck in Iraq without a bus ticket home. It means the government, the military, needs to immediately draw up withdrawal plans to be implemented before the money runs out MONTHS FROM NOW.

If they are not withdrawn it is not Congress' fault, any more than it is the bank's fault if someone continues to write checks after their account is empty.