IT'S THE TROOPS, STUPID!

By: oldsoldier
Published On: 9/18/2007 12:41:08 AM

Joe Galloway of McClatchy said it best:  "Neither Mr. Bush nor Mr. Cheney has any firsthand experience of war or combat, and neither has any personal stake in this war beyond their reputations and the judgment that historians will make in the years to come. Neither they nor their children has ever heard a shot fired in anger.
It is for the half a percent of Americans who do the fighting and dying and suffering - and their families - who must soldier on in a lost war, taking orders from a commander-in-chief who gets his advice from a vice president who sleeps in a different bed every night, fearing that the bad guys are coming to get him."
Who is Joe Galloway?  "General H. Norman Schwarzkopf has called Joseph L. Galloway, a military columnist for McClatchy Newspapers, "The finest combat correspondent of our generation - a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend." 
Now what I am asking all of you to do is:  1.  Stop getting your pants wet by p***ing into the wind to get your pants wet by demanding the politically impossible of democratic leadership and, 2.  Edit and repost  these comments as your own diaries on as many blogs as possible and improve its message as an alternative to absolute demands.  I do not care about credit and "who said it first" as I am a retired Army officer who enjoyed the TET 1968 celebration in Vietnam while "embedded" with the South Vietnamese Army as an advisor.  I don't have a lot of years left but I do have grandchildren,  and though I am at least a twice a day reader of Raising Kaine, Daily Kos and several other blogs, learning  diary protocol and procedure is not  high on my list of things to-do before I die. 
Forget about demanding a specific withdrawal schedule for our troops and calling on Congress to cut off spending.  It ain't  gonna  happen BUT, yes BUT there is another way we non-ideologue progressives can band together to bring the heat our leaders need us to bring to reduce troop levels quickly and that is to demand support for the Webb Amendment of all senators.
My suggestions for netroots slogans are:
1. IT'S THE TROOPS, STUPID!
2. PUT YOUR VOTE WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS SENATOR!

What disappoints me about this amendment is that it SCREAMS SUPPORT THE TROOPS and it is ignored by the newspapers and talking heads and DOESN'T HAVE ALL DEMOCRATS ON BOARD at this late date.
What the hell can be anti-war or Bush-Bashing about a law saying that the troops all the yellow ribbon magnet and yellow-bellied republicans support must be given equal time with their families (and nowadays most have families) before they can be sent off involuntarily to face the possibility of yet another chance of meeting with their maker again?
How, IN GOD's NAME, can republicans and reluctant democrats deny that the Webb Amendment is needed under simple American ideas of fairness to those who have answered the call to serve.  No one enlists in the National Guard with hopes of doing 20 years active duty in a 25 year period.  Stop-loss is an almost criminal breach of contract. Active duty troops need rest too and a veto-proof law that says you can't send them into harm's way for 15 months and give them 2 months home leave before sending them back again is what we need because under Bush it may come to that before he leaves office!
The 7 who wrote the unpaid op-ed in the New York Times are now 4 as of this week and a republican chickenhawk has doubted that they had the intellectual firepower to write the article themselves, suggesting that it was ghost-written.  Where is the so-called liberal mainstream media that crucified Senator Kerry for a Mis-Speak on the republican putdown of the IQ of the troops who wrote what the republicans didn't want to hear?
Call me what you will, but stop bickering, hope with me that progressives are not rigid on issues facing us that will impact on our children and grandchildren and prove to me that we can compromise and organize.  I am so P****d at Ralph Nader that I was going to suggest naming the first oil rig in the Alaska Wildlife Preserve "Nader One" but that is not yet needed.  Ralph's Ego hurt us and I'm saying do not worry about citing my ideas and arguments and do whatever you can to help the Webb Amendment.  Cindy Sheehan won't agree with a pragmatic approach, but ain't nothing gonna happen as a result of her Bush-Like "my way or the highway."  Ralph Nader, should he raise his stupid head again to teach the democratic party yet another of his important lessons, should be rewarded with an epitaph that reads:  "He purified the democratic party out of power for more than one decade."  The republicans may want to name an airport after him and I don't want to antagonize democrats who use airports so, if democrats lose again, let us leave that to the republicans in the manner that Bush is trying to leave IRAQ to what he may erroneously see as an impotent democratic party.  I hope we are unified and not all over the place on piss-ant issues because WE, with the WEBB Amendment, are all the troops and their families have left given Secretary of Defense Gates' objection to one month's rest or training (and training is not rest for those of us who have been through it) for one month's getting shot at by people who want to kill you. 
Keep records on the vote for the Webb Amendment as they will come in handy for the 2010 Senators up for reelection as well as those up in 2008. 
I'm not sure whether my new-found netroots can do what needs to be done, but op-eds and letters to the editor are straining for "fair and balanced" anymore, so rewrite and repost whatever you find worth your time and effort in this comment without bothering with a link or citation.  Thanks.

Comments



Pull No Punches, Spare No Egos (Catzmaw - 9/18/2007 12:56:03 AM)
I like this.  Straight, to the point, pragmatic, and absolutely necessary.  You're right.  Why are we allowing the Republicans to get away with trashing the troops (RIP those who are now gone) who wrote that op-ed and denying even a modest rest period for those who are making all the sacrifices?

Go to military.com.  This very issue is being discussed among the mostly military (active and retired) members.

We should challenge and put this Administration's supporters on the spot at every turn.  Don't let them get by with calling the Webb Amendment a "surrender" or "cut and run" or "failure to support the troops."  All the lefties out there who've been all over Webb and others for their alleged failure to move immediately for withdrawal or to cut the funding need to get off their high horses and support this amendment.  Thanks, oldsoldier.



You are 100 % right, and everyone should be angry (Ron1 - 9/18/2007 2:08:15 AM)
Senator Webb talks about how this war is an intellectual exercise for so many citizens, and it's easy to think about it in abstract terms -- the strategic error of deciding to occupy such a cauldron in the Middle East. But this war is being waged on the backs of real men and women and their families, and only on their backs, with the rest of us (even those of us that are so politically plugged in) almost blissfully unaware. We owe it to them to demand that their lives be considered in this political farce, and we owe it to them to remember who would stand up and speak for them, and who would carry Bush's water instead.

This is the most important moral issue facing this Congress, and they must not fold on this issue. Bush may voice his petulant veto threats, but the majority of the Congress should say, unequivocally, not one more dime without accepting our limits on the way these armed forces are governed. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives our Congress that power, and that obligation.

We have much to make up for in this country after the empire burlesque (to steal from Chris Floyd) of the past 6+ years. But more than anything, we owe the men and women of our armed forces our solemn vow that their incongruent sacrifices will not be forgotten, and we will make sure all those damaged will be mended and properly honored.