Do as I say...or its your fault.

So more news on Iraq and our fearless leader. The all wise and all seeing president of the United States George W has decided that unless you do what he says it is your fault that American troops are at risk.

In recent news the senate and congress have decided that they don’t want to fund President Bush’s war unless he can set a time table for withdrawal. Not to mention that Bush has decided that all the “pork projects” which are attached to the bill are completely unacceptable. Despite the fact that the pork projects are bogus and shouldn’t be attached to any bill, this is something that the republicans had been tagging onto their war funding bills the entire war. What it comes down to is that President Bush now wants to shift the blame for the war and if something should go wrong. Despite the fact that this legislation more closely resembles what the people of the United States wants, that is no concern to George W Bush who has flatly said that he will veto this bill when it crosses his desk, thus make under funding the congress and senates fault, not his.

Now let’s look at some of President Bush’s comments and see what the reality behind them is.

"When Congress does not fund our troops on the front lines, our military is forced to make cuts in other areas to cover the shortfall," he said. " . . . By mid-April, the Army will be forced to consider cutting back on training, equipment repair, and quality of life initiatives for our Guard and Reserve forces . . . By mid-May, the problems grow even more acute."

If funding for the war is delayed much longer, Bush said, "some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines. And others could see their loved ones headed back to war sooner than they need to."

The reality of this situation is that the aforementioned events are and have been happening already. Because Bush entered the war unprepared units have been forced to stay in the field longer than normal and soldiers have had their service length made longer even after their discharge dates. On top of this soldiers are not receiving the appropriate amount of downtime, usually 18 months for a year of service but many have been returning to Iraq with as little as 7 months of recovery time with some guard and reserve units serving 3-4 tours. We can also look at the fact that the last military funding bill was not passed through until June and the soldiers didnt suffer, Bush is reaching for straws and having a hard time finding one to hold onto.

Training and equipment is a whole issue in and of itself. Because of the shortage of equipment from day one with our brave leader’s new war, training has lagged. There is a shortage of training tools, equipment and vehicles because the US was unprepared for the conflict and had to ship much of it to Iraq rather than train. Lastly Bush wants to claim the congress and senate are putting troops in harms way? This is the worst accusation of all as it is Bush who sent US troops into combat action without the proper body armor; it is Bush who decided that putting sufficient armor on Humvees was not a priority to the point where troops were using old Iraqi tank armor to put on Humvees. The same armor that is toxic due to uranium depleted ammo used by the US in the first Gulf War.

The real problem lies with the leader, not the congress or senate. They are doing the right thing and following the will of the people, not their misguided dreams. If he wants to blame anyone for problems in Iraq, from the top down he needs to look at himself and realize not only has he failed the Iraqi and American people, but he has also failed the US fighting men and women by constantly short changing them. The congress is trying for a solution; Bush is the hurdle that needs to be overcome.

Washington Post article: Here