Troop deployment curb killed

Yesterday, Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel, the two turncoats with no cause, failed to run a play around the Administration’s flank and curtail deployment of forces into the two largest conflicts in the Middle East. S.A.Miller of the Washington Times;

Senate Republicans yesterday blocked a bid by Democrats to restrict troop-deployment schedules for a second time, saying it would impede the ability of President Bush and generals to wage the war in Iraq.

“The majority has brought this back in order to reduce the numbers of fully trained and combat-experienced troops available to our military commanders and thus to force an accelerated drawdown of troops and units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let’s be honest about this,” said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican and presidential aspirant.

The troop-deployment measure, which would have required troops to get “dwell time” at home equal to time deployed overseas, died 56-44, falling four votes shy of the 60 needed to pass, according to a previous agreement.

Anyone who has ever read a page of Tsun Tzu or Clauswitz knows it’s a bad idea for the legislature to restrict deployment of troops into combat. That’s why we have a commander-in-chief – we can’t fight a war by committee. The 9-11 report is proof of that. So I guess that means Webb and Hagel are behind the youngest plebe in West Point in their reading. Of course, the Washington Post doesn’t see it that way;

Senate Republicans yesterday rejected a bipartisan proposal to lengthen the home leaves of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, derailing a measure that war opponents viewed as one of the best chances to force President Bush to accelerate a redeployment of forces.

Republican Senators came to their senses;

Reading between the lines, Republicans detected another aim. By limiting the pool of people who would be eligible for deployment, they believed that Democrats were attempting to force the troop reductions that they had failed to bring about legislatively.  

So because of the failed measure, the Post concedes that it’s still Bush’s war;

The vote offered the most vivid evidence yet that the Bush administration still controls Iraq war policy, despite months of congressional debate, the war’s persistent unpopularity and a summer-long effort by activists to pressure Republicans.

Despite the fact that Harry Reid tried to change it;

“Our Republican colleagues are more interested in protecting our president than our troops,” Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said moments before the vote, when defeat appeared certain. “This is Bush’s war. Don’t make it also the Republican senators’ war.”

The Times reports that Reid thinks of himself as a warrior;

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, vowed to keep pushing to end the war, even though Mr. Webb’s amendment was the lone war-related measure considered to have a chance for passage.

“We will not stop waging the hard-but-necessary fight to responsibly end the war,” he said.

Imagine that – he’s willing to fight long and hard to ensure our defeat in the Middle East. It’s too damn bad he can’t summon the testicular fortitude to turn that same perserverance towards the enemies of the country he’s sworn to protect and defend.

Category: Politics, Terror War