The Escalation Continues
Nancy Pelosi is between Iraq and a hard place thanks to David Obey, John Murtha and the Nutroots on the left side and swing voters she’ll need to retain her majority on the right side. I wouldn’t want to be in her position, especially after Mssrs. Obey and Murtha made this statement:
Leading House Democratic appropriators vowed Nov. 20 not to bless off-budget supplemental appropriations that President Bush requested for Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere until he compromises and agrees to conditions that have already garnered a veto threat.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) and defense appropriations subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) declared they would support Bush’s entire $196 billion supplemental request immediately if the president concedes to House-passed provisions concerning troop readiness, CIA interrogations and a goal of troop withdrawal from major Iraq operations by the end of next year (DAILY, Nov. 19).
They said administration efforts to achieve political progress in Iraq have fallen short while the military, increasingly strained by prolonged operations, has to draw down ground forces there and reset. But Bush chose to “surge” troops into Iraq instead of embracing the Baker-Hamilton commission’s recommendations last year.
“The money is not the issue; the lack of a plan is,” Obey told reporters at a Capitol Hill conference. Obey and Murtha decried what they deemed White House obstinacy and said the administration was making the choice to sacrifice funding of noncombat defense efforts for the unpopular war, despite public sentiment.
Why shouldn’t the White House treat Mssrs. Obey and Murtha rudely after seeing how unserious and uninformed these gentlemen are? Why shouldn’t President Bush push them to either defund the war and suffer the political consequences or to fund the war his way? Murtha and Obey have the power of the purse; they don’t have policymaking powers. According to this Washington Times article, Murtha has gone so far as saying that the situation in Iraq is hopeless:
“Look at all the people that have been displaced, all the [lost] oil production, unemployment, all those type of things,” said Rep. John P. Murtha, chairman of Appropriations defense subcommittee. “We can’t win militarily.”
The Pennsylvania Democrat conceded violence was down dramatically and some normalcy restored on Iraq’s streets, but he said U.S. victory remains unattainable as long as Baghdad fails to pass national reconciliation laws.
“To change the political law, it doesn’t seem to me you need the military stability,” Mr. Murtha told reporters on Capitol Hill.
John Murtha wouldn’t recognize reconciliation if it bit him in the backside. Murtha’s making his claims based on what his vision of reconciliation looks like. He won’t admit that reconciliation can happen without following Murtha’s vision. That’s what happens when arrogance supplants objectivity.
The appropriators further slammed a recent letter to Congress from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England as a “political document” designed to scare Democrats and defense workers. England and Army leaders have warned of worker furloughs and depleted operations and maintenance accounts as money was transferred to pay for combat operations.
Obey and Murtha, both longtime appropriators, said they know full well when the Defense Department will run out of money - in March, they said - and what effects internal money shuffling has there.
Jim at Gateway Pundit offers proof that Mssrs. Obey and Murtha are wrong:
If Congress does not come through with a supplemental bill President Bush will sign, money for defeating the largest killers of American personnel in the war on terror will run out Dec. 1, a senior official said here today. Retired Army Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, told Pentagon reporters that the organization will have to stop funding new initiatives and just maintain operations.
“We’re out of (funding) new stuff now; we’re going to have trouble sustaining current contracts after the first of December,” Meigs said.
The anti-IED organization needs the funding to sustain operations and to pay for equipment fielded but not yet turned over to the services for funding, Meigs said. For example, he said, his organization funds the Guardian man-portable jammer, the contractors to service it, and the training in the system.
The organization tests new projects, ideas, ways of doing business and equipment against IEDs. If they prove effective, the organization is nimble enough to quickly can get the equipment to the hands of servicemembers. Meigs said the organization has enough money “to keep the lights on” through April. The organization is funded via supplemental spending bills.
“What I can’t fund today will not go into the field next summer or next fall,” Meigs said. “It’ll be delayed by the amount of time we wait for funding.”
This is occurring at a time when IED attacks have dropped 55 percent from their high in June. The average daily attacks are down 42 percent. “That is really good news,” Meigs said. “This is coincident with the surge.” The overall peak in June and July of this year, and IED attacks have been dropping steadily ever since.
“This is a function of more soldiers on the ground being more aggressive,” the general said.
The most positive indicator in Iraq is the number of enemy weapons caches being discovered, he said. “This year cache finds are up significantly,” he said. “And we’re finding big caches. If you can damage (the enemy’s) wholesale system, it’s a lot harder for him to operate.” In 2006, the coalition and Iraqi forces found a total of 2,667 caches. This year so far, the number is 5,364.
As Jim points out, “This is an outrage.” It’s time we told Mssrs. Obey and Murtha that we’ll hold them personally responsible for any deaths that happen because they didn’t appropriate the money needed. This isn’t a game. This is war. This isn’t the place for irresponsible ideologues to start playing to their lunatic base for a few extra dollars of campaign contributions. This is a time when patriotic statesmen to step forward and do the right thing.
Mssrs. Obey and Murtha are neither patriotic or statesmen. I’m confident that President Bush will stick to his guns. I’m confident that he’ll prevail. Thankfully, he won’t ‘compromise’ on America’s defeat. Thankfully, the American people will agree with President Bush.
Now if they’ll just help get Murtha and Obey out of the chairman seats, we’ll be in great shape. Isn’t it time to ask people if they haven’t had enough of the Democrats’ unserious approach to fighting the gravest war in a generation?
I’d say it’s long past time.
Technorati Tags: David Obey, John Murtha, Defeatocrats, Anti-war Left, Appropriations, IEDs, Casualties, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
November 21st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I am seriously having a conflict when I think who would be better….Cindy Shehag or Pelosi?
November 21st, 2007 at 6:34 pm
1) It has occurred to me that Murtha is kinda right: there cannot be an American “victory”. Of course, that “victory” was never why we were there in the first place. We are at war in Iraq to make it a safe and habitable place for the people who live there, and when that’s accomplished we will leave. Hardly a “victory” in the sense Jack(ass) uses the word.
2) While “supporting the troops” by cutting off funding for them, both Murtha and Obey show that partisan politics and hate for GW are far more important than responsible power of the purse. Hanging as traitors to their own troops would be too kind.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Patton should be spinning in his grave.
His idea of victory was “Im going to Berlin and personally shoot the paper hangin’ sonofabitch.”
Murtha would have proabably said “Im going to find out who killed all those nice German boys. There’s some kind of cover up here!”