Murtha gears up to battle the surge
The majority of the American people support the troops but not the war. You hear it everywhere, standing in line at the grocery store, etc. .. just open your ears and listen.
Everybody supported the war in Afghanistan -- but we took our eye off Al Qaeda and emboldened the enemy when we invaded Iraq. And then we outsourced the job in Afghanistan to NATO. The Taliban are still there and getting stronger. Bin Laden is still at large. The Middle East has more 'terrorists' who want to kill us than ever before .. because of Bush's actions.
4 years later we're still falling behind in Iraq, in spite of this, Bush wants a FOURTH 'surge.'
If we keep doing the same thing expecting different results, we'll be sadly disappointed surge after surge .. and more deaths of Americans and Iraqis will be the only result we can expect. Our troops are having spit and rocks thrown at them by the very people they're trying to help.
The public AGREES with the Democrats .. Republicans lost the '06 elections based on the FUBAR Iraq war .. and Democrats were elected to do something to stop it. And now here comes John Murtha with a plan to derail the new surge strategy in Iraq.
"Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said he would seek to tie future deployments in Iraq to troops meeting high standards of training and getting enough rest between combat tours. Murtha said he believes the Army may have no units that can meet those standards, meaning that Bush's attempt to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq would be effectively thwarted.[..]"
George W. Bush is always trying to blackmail his political opponents by saying they must support him and his war funding or they are betraying the troops.
But I think it is George W. Bush who seems to have a problem supporting the troops. First he sends them into a war of his choice .. without the equipment they need .. in the hands of crooks like Halliburton, who have given them polluted water, out-dated food and other services on the cheap.
Then they are required to serve long after they were promised a little break .. some are on their third and forth deployments. They are supposed to have a year between .. but they don't get that.
And they don't get sufficient healthcare funding after they come home ..
George W. Bush is also putting the bill for his Iraq mess on the backs of their children and grandchildren .. while his cronies stuff their pockets with more and more of our taxpayer's dollars.
And then he carries on about how Congress must give him the emergency funding for his surge or they will be accused of not supporting the troops.
Well now, Rep. John Murtha has promised to put together a bill that will require George W. Bush to really support the troops with more than just empty words.
Murtha's bill will end the "stopgap draft." That's where the military reserves the right to "call up" .. or draft .. veterans who have served their time and earned honorable discharges .. but technically remain in what the Pentagon calls the Independent Ready Reserves. These people have served and chose to leave the military only to be pulled back in against their will. They make up an angry and very vocal group.
Murtha wants to end deployments extensions .. and end the deployment of troops without sufficient training (we've heard of kids being sent over after only 2 weeks of training!), without proper equipment or proper time between deployments.
Murtha wants to close Abu Ghraib. He wants to reduce the number of contractors that can be used .. and change the rules so contractors have to be more accountable to the American people about how they spend our money. One out of every six dollars charged by civilian contractors in Iraq has no documentation .. or is missing.
Murtha wants to withhold funding for permanent bases in Iraq, etc. In short, his bill will address all those Bush policies that have created such a mess in Iraq.
I know, his plan seems like a long shot, a rather indirect way of getting at the problem .. but without Republican support to actually directly end the occupation, this is probably the best way to go. Like Pelosi said about the non-binding resolution -- you have to start somewhere.
Boy, the righties are bursting a blood vessel over Murtha's plan. But, if he were a Republican and the shoe on the other foot, righties would be screaming about how unpatriotic Democrats are for questioning his patriotism. When they have the utter gall to smear a military man such as Murtha .. they are sinking faster than the Titanic.
I'll respect a highly decorated career Marine any day over the draft dodgers currently in the White House.
Murtha cares deeply about our troops in harms way .. he visits the wounded and the maimed in the Walter Reed Military Hospital every week. He talks to them, he listens to what they say.
When you join the military you basically waive your constitutional rights as an American -- including the right to free speech. Active-duty soldiers can’t show disrespect for the president or their commanding officers. But an anonymous Military Times poll of US service personnel in Iraq showed a majority of active duty troops want us out of Iraq .. and only one-third of them approve of Bush's handling of the war.
Sometimes I think that the chickenhawk righties are using the troops as mere props .. like the flag they wrap themselves in.
