What is going on in the two houses of Congress with respect to the Iraq war reflects more closely the personal and political interests of its individual members than the will of the American people.

It is clear that the great majority of Americans are ready to see the Iraq war draw to an end. It has been going on for four years, longer than World War II. Its financial cost stands at more than $400 billion, money that could have been spent on other, domestic needs of the American people -- health care, education, infrastructure repair and replacement, devising ways to stem the catastrophic flow of jobs overseas. The U.S. death toll now stands at more than 3,200; the new scandal over the inadequate care of wounded veterans of the war underscores the full dimension of the price of this war to the country. Finally, no one can yet give a cogent reason for why America is fighting in Iraq.

But Congress either doesn't get it, or doesn't have the courage to bring the matter to an end. The way to do that is perfectly obvious and is the same means Congress used to bring the Vietnam War to an end: Cut off the money to fight it.

Instead, lawmakers are letting themselves be distracted by the fallacious argument that to support the troops, Congress has to provide as much money as President Bush seeks to continue to fight the war. This time it is a supplemental appropriation of $124 billion on top of the administration's regular budget proposal of nearly $500 billion in spending on the military.

Mr. Bush's approach is to pile up the U.S. troops in Iraq, rather than to withdraw them. Congress, and particularly the Senate's houseful of presidential candidates, needs to stop the campaign preening and posturing and bring this pointless war to an end.