Bush strands the troops!

That George Bush will veto the National Defense Authorization Act is not, taken in isolation, a big deal. If we're insistent upon continuing to fund this war, then the objections he raises are, at the very least, worth debating. And, though obviously it would've been better if the complications had all been realized before the act had passed both houses of Congress, these things are long and complicated and, basically, shit happens.

But in a wider sense, what Bush is doing is an extremely big deal. He is, for all intents and purposes and based upon some unrelated objections, delaying the troops' access to the money and other resources their civilian leaders promised them. So let's remember this the next time Bush asks urgently for war money--money that that can't wait for debate, because the troops need it right away and blah blah blah.... If the troops can wait for their government to fix a bill that the Iraqi government doesn't like, then they can wait for their government to debate the sorts of provisions that might actually limit the scope of the Iraq disaster in some small way.