In the upcoming debate in Congress on the war in Iraq, Republicans are going to want to focus solely on the progress being made in al-Anbar province. Democrats are going to want to focus solely on the lack of political progress in Baghdad. But what could prove to be the tipping point in the debate is what the British are currently focused on: Basra. Because what happens there, in the next few weeks, may determine the outcome of the debate in Washington.

First, a little background on the military situation in Basra. To begin with, the British armed forces have been in charge of the southern region of Iraq since the war started. They were originally in charge of four whole provinces, and also in charge of the training programs (of the Iraq military and police) within their region. Three of these four provinces have already been successfully turned over to Iraqi military control. The remaining province -- Basra Province -- is still under British control, as is the city of Basra itself.

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It's September, and Congress is back in Washington. I hope they got nice and rested on their month-long vacation, because the next month is going to be critical in many ways. Democrats can either step up to the plate, show some spine, and get some things done -- or their chances for getting reelected are going to grow increasingly dim for next year.

Republicans, thankfully, are doing a good job of self-destructing on their own. This will serve to depress their base in the primaries and the election next year. But Democrats should be warned that their own base will likely desert them if they can't manage to win a few fights in Congress.

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The long weekend is almost over, which means it's time to announce the winners of our anti-war slogan contest.

Once again, there was a flood of excellent entries, making it extremely difficult to pick winners out of the field.

As always, winners receive absolutely nothing, other than bragging rights. A big thanks to everyone who entered, and without further ado, here are the top three winners in each of the following categories: Best Chant, Best Anti-Bush Slogan, Best Slogan To Influence Middle America, Best Slogan To Influence Congress, Funniest Slogan, Most Subtle Slogan, and Best Obscure Reference.

At the end, five awards for Most Profane / Tasteless (because of overwhelming interest in the category), and my five picks for Best Overall Slogan.

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Last week we all had a lot of fun here posting entries to a contest the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was running for a bumpersticker slogan for Democrats to run on next year.

Because of the wildly enthusiastic response, I am running another slogan contest this week. But this week, we have a much more important contest to run. Don't worry, though -- it should be just as much fun to enter!

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We continue today looking at the Democratic candidates for President, and what they would do about Iraq. Part 1 of this article ran yesterday, and covered Richardson, Obama, Kucinich, and Gravel. Continuing in reverse alphabetical order, today we examine Edwards, Dodd, Clinton, and Biden.

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About the Cartoonist  |  Reprint Policy

With the most important debate of the whole year (and possibly the whole war) teed up and ready to begin in Congress in the next few weeks, I thought it would be a good time to do a summary and analysis of what all the Democratic candidates have to say on the subject of Iraq. Many of these candidates, it should be noted, are still sitting Senators and Representatives, and therefore have both the duty and the responsibility to participate in the debate in Congress.

They should be relishing the opportunity, since it will be a rare chance to show actual, tangible leadership. Which is definitely a requirement for the job of President of the United States.

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There are some important questions which need to be addressed in the upcoming Iraq debate in September, but they seem to be flying under everyone's radar (so to speak): When will the Iraq Army get the heavy weaponry it will need to defend the country against its neighbors? When will Iraq get tanks, helicopters, and airplanes? Which advanced models should they have? And how many of each should they have?

These are important questions, and they are ones which nobody seems to be asking, at least no one that I am aware of. What is striking about this omission is that this subject is one of the few rare issues about Iraq that is not time-dependent, and non-partisan. It does not matter whether you think the "surge" is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or (conversely) whether you think our President is a complete moron who can't tie his own shoes right -- because the question remains the same: When we leave Iraq (whether that is next month, next year, or ten years from now), what equipment should we leave behind for the Iraqi military to use?

Because this is the rarest of the rare in the Iraq debate -- an issue which has no real partisan slant to it -- you would think that both parties would be loudly talking about it in an effort to divert attention from the rest of the Iraq mess. But either the question has just not been considered by politicians and military leaders, or they're doing a bang-up job of not telling us about it. I honestly don't know which scares me more.

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