Cutting off funding for the occupation of Iraq is the only way to stop its continuation. Bush has stated that the next President can worry about bringing troops home and has shown a blatant disregard for the wishes of the American people concerning the Iraq conflict time and time again.

Your personal attack on Feingold ignores the important issues in bringing the troops home. When the war first began the stated mission was to remove a brutal dictator from power, eliminate the threat from weapons of mass destruction, later we had to stay to allow the Iraqi people to hold elections, then we had to stay to train Iraqi police and military. Saddam vanished prior to the invasion and was later captured and killed for a minor crime compared to some of the things he committed. There haven't been weapons of mass destruction as described by the Bush administration in the lead up to the war in years so an invasion wasn't necessary to accomplish this goal. There have been two elections in Iraq since the invasion. Over 400,000 police and military members have been trained in Iraq since they were disbanded.

Of course firing all of the police and military when Paul Bremer arrived in Baghdad didn't help to promote welcoming opinions towards a military occupier. It seems that our goals have been accomplished thus it is time to let Iraqi people have their right of self-determination. Will the violence stop if we leave? Who knows, but the continued presence of a military occupier is not helping to reduce violence and death.

Even with the recent "surge" deaths have stayed high as death squads have went into hiding and suicide bombers have replaced them. The mission is complete and our troops deserve to be home where they can help out in national emergencies and not be in harms way with no clear mission. In order to get the troops home before thousands more die the Congress must remove funding for a continued presence in Iraq for years to come.

Todd Dennis is a Senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War who served in the U.S. Navy from 1997-2003.