Defunding

Glenn Greenwald has a terrific post about the biggest myth of ending the war in Iraq. He dissects how conservatives have been successful in equating war defunding with an immediate impact on troops, i.e. if war funding stops then in the middle of a battle troops will run out of bullets or someone will come around and take their body armor. Greenwald explains how this is nonsense and gives us the consequences:

So Alter is correct that Americans became convinced that de-funding constitutes troop abandonment. But that does not excuse what the Democrats did here, because the principal reason that Americans became convinced of that myth is because Democrats themselves embraced and propagated it. And now that myth lies cemented at the center of our political debate, and as a result, the most effective Congressional weapon for ending the war -- the one the Founders designed for that purpose -- has become politically radioactive, all based on a ludicrous notion that literally has no basis in reality.

In order for Democrats, and Congress in general, to reclaim their right to stop a war via the power of the purse they will have to re-educate the American public on exactly how it works. And above all, this first begins with discontinuing language that equates funding with supporting the troops.