Republican Senators Only Pay Lip Service To Our Troops
By Dave Gibson (07/18/07)
Last week, an amendment introduced by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) which would have required that our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan receive leave equal to the length of their last deployment, failed to pass. The measure failed because 41 Republicans voted against it. These are the same Republicans who constantly claim to support our troops, even though they have allowed them to become mired in a seemingly pointless and endless conflict.
The Webb amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill would have granted 15 month home leaves to our active duty troops in Iraq, as the Defense Dept. has recently extended their tours of duty to 15 months. Additionally, National Guard and Reserve troops would have received a three-year break in between active duty deployments.
After his measure failed, Sen. Webb made the following statement:
"A clear majority of the Senate, 56 members, sent a strong message today in favor of ensuring responsible deployment cycles for our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. I regret that we did not reach the 60-vote margin that would have allowed this amendment to prevail. It was offered with the intention of protecting the well-being of our troops."
"A Republican filibuster kept this amendment >from passing by an up-or-down vote. Americans are tired of this kind of posturing. The troops and their families don't want to hear about political, procedural maneuvers. What they really care about are results. They are looking for concrete actions that will protect the well-being of our men and women in uniform."
"The question on this amendment is not whether you support this war or whether you do not. It is not whether you want to wait until July or September to see where one particular set of benchmarks or summaries might be taking us. The question is this: more than four years into ground operations in Iraq, we owe stability, and a reasonable cycle of deployment, to the men and women who are carrying our nation's burden. That is the question. And that was the purpose of this amendment."
While Republicans tell us that only they care about our troops and their families, only seven Republican Senators felt the need to ease the incredible burden being made by those troops. The majority of these same Senators continue to support Bush though he offers no actual strategy for our forces in Iraq. With no definite goal, our troops have become nothing more than targets for Sunni and Shiite alike.
The Bush administration forces our soldiers to fight under constraining rules of engagement. This policy is not lost on the enemy who fights with ruthless determination. In many cases, our troops must call into headquarters to ask permission to mount an attack on insurgents even while already under fire. This nonsensical strategy is no doubt responsible for the death and dismemberment of thousands of our soldiers.
With our troops now facing 15-month long deployments, they will be on combat duty longer than any troops in American history. While many of our soldiers during WWII were gone for years, after 180 days of combat line duty they were considered 'exhausted' and taken off of the line. Our troops go to Iraq and may go through heavy fighting for a month or two to take a particular area. After the territory is 'taken,' they then go out on patrol everyday in which they face more actual combat (RPG attacks, IEDs, snipers, small arms fire, etc.). Our soldiers are always subject to combat while in Iraq.
After the 9/11 attacks, Bush had the opportunity to grow the size of our military. He could have asked Congress to re-instate the draft or simply made an appeal to all men between the ages of 18-35. However, he told us instead to "go shopping." He and Donald Rumsfeld did not raise the necessary number of troops to take the fight back to the Muslim world, nor even to invade Iraq. Even as the Iraq war dragged on, Bush failed to substantially grow the military and instead continued to push already exhausted troops.
The families of these soldiers will now be without fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters for 15 months. If they are lucky enough to have their soldier return home in one piece, they will only be with them for a few months before they must return to combat. This open-ended war is truly placing an undue and shameful burden on military families.
No one in the Bush administration has served in the military, because all of these Ivy League elitists felt that it was beneath them. This is one reason why these same half-men have no respect or compassion for our troops and THE reason why this war was doomed to failure. Bush and the rest of the Republican milksops only pay lip service to our troops, while asking much more of them than they ever asked of themselves.
Sen. Webb attempted to bring some measure of peace and order to our soldiers chaotic lives, and the Bushbots said HELL NO!
This current government does not deserve the sacrifices being made by the men and women in our military.
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