It is never easy but, sometimes, when a single senator parts ranks with the political pack, things begins to change.

That certainly appears to be the case with Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold's decision to break the political taboo that said Washington could not have a discussion about how and when to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

In June, when Feingold offered the first Senate resolution calling on President Bush to provide a time frame for withdrawing troops from Iraq as the U.S. military mission there was completed, he was ignored.

In August, when Feingold proposed a target date for withdrawing U.S. troops from the Iraqi quagmire by the end of 2006, he was ridiculed and criticized. Even fellow Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., went out of their way to make it clear that they disagreed with Feingold.

But the message from the American people was far more supportive.

Feingold's efforts to develop an exit strategy have earned him a national reputation as the sensible senator who recognizes what is clear to any honest observer: The current stay-the-course strategy of the Bush administration and its congressional allies is not making anything better in Iraq. It is simply killing more Americans and Iraqis, emptying the U.S. treasury of needed resources and, in the ultimate irony for what is supposed to be a war-on-terror mission, encouraging new recruits angered over the U.S. military's violent occupation of a Muslim land to sign on with fundamentalist groups such as al-Qaida.

Even the most doltish Democrats in Washington have begun to feel the heat from their constituents. Last week, things finally boiled over, as 40 senators - including Reid and Clinton - joined Feingold in voting for an exit strategy resolution. They were joined by one Republican, Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee, and one independent, Vermont's Jim Jeffords.

The rest of the Republican caucus voted against the resolution, as did five Democrats. But most of these senators later backed a Republican-sponsored resolution that prodded Bush to take steps that would allow the withdrawal of significant numbers of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2006.

For the first time since this unnecessary war began, the Senate is beginning to talk about how to get U.S. troops out of the line of fire and to refocus the nation's priorities on fighting terrorism and addressing domestic needs.

Then late last week, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a Vietnam veteran and longtime hawk on military issues, called for an immediate withdrawal of the troops. The White House fired back a blistering response, but clearly members of Congress sense the American people's frustration with this unwise war.

This is a hopeful development, as is the prospect that over time, more elected officials will recognize Feingold is right when he says, "Our service members deserve to know what their military mission is and when they can expect to achieve it. And the American people deserve to know that we have a plan, tied to clear benchmarks, for achieving our military goals and redeploying our troops out of Iraq so we can focus on our most pressing national security priority: defeating the global terrorists who threaten this country."

© 2005 Capital Times