Showdown.

By NANCY GIBBS

A war of words yields heavy casualties when the subject is war itself. In Washington, the White House charged Democrats with trying to win elections by losing a war, and Democrats fired back on a President sunk in a "state of denial." Dick Cheney accused Senate majority leader Harry Reid of ignorance and "defeatism." "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9% approval rating," Reid replied.

But behind the congressional vote on an Iraq spending bill that includes withdrawal dates--and the inevitable Bush veto of that bill--arose a deeper debate about truth and its consequences. David Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, briefed lawmakers on his progress after nine U.S. paratroopers died in one of the deadliest ground assaults of the war. Was that evidence that the new strategy was doomed, or only that it was dangerous, bringing soldiers into forward outposts to engage the enemy? Or both?

Heed the commanders on the ground, Bush told lawmakers, but that plea was chilled by the testimony in another hearing room. The war's icons spoke in person and from the grave, honored and pitied as heroes and pawns. Jessica Lynch was no "little girl Rambo from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting," she told the lawmakers investigating what families are told about how soldiers die. NFL star turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman had not died a hero under enemy fire, his brother Kevin said, but died by friendly fire. And in both cases, the chain of command told a different story.

Kevin, who had served in the same platoon, recoiled at the "calculated lies," including a Silver Star awarded his brother because the Army needed a hero as much as it feared a scandal. It was weeks before the Tillmans learned the truth. "We've all been betrayed," Pat's mother Mary Tillman said. "We never thought they would use him the way they did."

Lynch and Tillman served with honor, but their honor too was a victim of friendly fire. "The truth in war is not always easy," Lynch declared and then paid homage to all who have served, and died, like the best friend she lost that day when her underarmored convoy went astray. "The truth is always more heroic than the hype." Just less politically convenient.