A useful political stunt

Story.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House late Friday overwhelmingly rejected calls for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, a vote engineered by the Republicans that was intended to fail.

Democrats derided the vote as a political stunt. . .

The House voted 403-3 to reject a nonbinding resolution calling for an immediate troop withdrawal.

Of course this was a political stunt by the Republicans in that the resolution offered was not what Rep. Murtha had proposed. But it nevertheless served a very useful purpose. It sent a clear message to our enemies that, although we fight like crazy amongst ourselves, they should not draw the wrong conclusions from those fights. The bottom line is that a withdrawal of troops ain't going to happen until we have concluded (accurately or not) that Iraq can stand on its own two feet.