BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

So far, the House committee that oversees defense spending predicts that the budget proposal will be ready by the end of the month.  Well, okay.  I suppose thinking that the Democrats have the balls or the votes to get their language of having the troops home by the end of the year is still a fantasy that I love to entertain.

According to an AP report on MSNBC

[Rep. John] Murtha told reporters last week that while the legislation would give the military the money it needs, he will recommend it demand troops leave Iraq by the end of the year - a showstopper for the Bush administration. Murtha said he’ll ask for other conditions such as that all deploying troops must be fully trained and equipped.

Ah, well!  Yeah!  This isn’t Rumsfeld’s war any more.  We should not send troops into war with guns that jam, without proper armor, and with inadequate training.  Hell, folks, the way the War in Iraq has been fought, we could have lined our soldiers up twenty deep and twenty abreast, dressed them in bright red waistcoats with white trim and gold buttons and marched them through Baghdad up to Fallujah.  But, wait… those were the British Redcoats… that was the Revolutionary War… our revolutionary war, not Iraq’s.

For all the boasting about having the best army in the world and the best this and the better that, the only thing we really have is a dedicated and loyal army of men and women who are willing to sacrifice life and limb for our country and for Iraq.  And, while it is semingly more important for our country to fund Halliburton and pay the soldiers-for-hire Blackwater mercenaries millions and millions of dollars, we can’t get our troops properly trained before dropping them off in a war zone.  We can’t give them the proper equipment to protect themselves or others.

I have a friend who has a daughter serving in Iraq.  She works in logistics, but before she was deployed we paid for a GPS system to take with her.  Maybe I’m not in touch with reality.  Maybe I expect too much.  But, ah… wouldn’t you think that “logistics” and “GPS navigating” would go together, even within the military mentality?

My point is this.  I am pro-peace.  But, we are in a war, The Cheney-Bush War.  And, finding ourselves in that position, the least we can do is provide the training and equipment our troops need.  Personally, I’m for stopping all funding and bringing our men and women home ASAP.  But, as a realist I know that isn’t going to happen, not yet.  I find it absolutely humiliating and disgraceful that John Murtha has to ask that funding be provided for proper training and proper equipment.

There is nothing about this war that is honorable.  We were led into Baghdad on a wing, a prayer, and a lie.  Obviously, no one stopped to think that our military forces weren’t fighting the British Redcoats.  Instead, they are fighting guerilla warfare against a rag tag renegade force of Insurgent Minute Men.  Some of our weapons jam almost as often as they fire.  The armored vehicles were sent into battle without armor and when the clever men and women of the military find scraps of metal and parts of old vehicles, they are chastised and penalized for taking the parts they need.  Yet, we can send $12 Billion in cash to Baghdad in the hands of a clone of D.B. Cooper and wonder how it disappeared before it hit the ground. 

It’s time to get on the phones and call our Represenatives and Senators.  It’s time to jam the fax machines and fill the email boxes.  It’s time to let both the House and the Senate know that we are watching them.  We must demand that if they are going to continue to fund this War of Waste and Want, they must provide the necessities for the troops.  Or, better, bring them home.