Safe War Or No War, Says The Dems

Already moving past its Resolution to Show No Resolve, the House is getting on with the attack on the war, promising next to take up funding.

Read what the Dem leaders are saying, and it's evident where they're coming from: Fear of unpleasantness, and distrust of the military. First Peacenik Pelosi:

In a letter to the president on Wednesday, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "thousands of the new troops" being sent into Iraq "will apparently not have the armor and equipment they need to perform the mission and reduce the likelihood of casualties."

Now her pet bulldog, Jack Murtha:

Murtha, a war veteran who advocates pulling troops out of Iraq, has said he wants to forbid the Pentagon from sending additional troops "unless they have adequate training and unless they have adequate equipment."

Murtha, D-Pa., said he believes the Army may have no units that can meet those standards, meaning Bush's attempt to send more troops to Iraq would be checked. Congress also could try to slow the deployment of additional troops by curtailing the Pentagon's practice of extending the duty tours of personnel who have reached the end of their scheduled time in the war zone. (source)

What is adequate armor and equipment? Disposing of the latter first, we have the best equipment of any military on earth and plenty of it, so Pelosi is fabricating a crisis out of thin air. Our troops have the stuff; she just lacks the stuffing to handle wartime leadership.

As for armor, it's a tired argument dating back to the earliest days of the war. Now the vests are there, the off-base vehicles are armed. That Iran has developed a new projectile that is capable of taking down an insanely armed Abrahms tank is not evidence that we are unarmed; it is merely evidence that the field of battle has gotten more dangerous because of direct involvement of Iran.

The desire to stop Iran's powerful new bombs with better armament is typical dove-think. They're all for war as long as no blood is spilled. If the enemy is ingenious and keeps finding new ways to kill us, then either we're at fault for not having enough armor, or for fighting a war in the first place. Of course, it's Iran and its Shia allies in Iraq who are at fault and the solution is not to whine about our armor but to disrupt their operations.

Murtha's comment, as usual, is particularly dispicable. He is the personification of everything that ticks me off about the old fighters who are getting in the way of the new fight. He needs no proof that the Pentagon is, as he alleges, sending under-armed, under-trained troops in. It's poppycock of course; just fodder for the anti-war left.

He wants the troops to not suffer longer deployments. Did he ask them? Did he consider the effect on our fighting if we treat combat duty as calendar-driven instead of need-driven? Did he ask consider that the enemy doesn't think in terms of tours of duty, but in terms of an eternal battle?

The Dem leadership might as well hang banners across their chests saying, "I'm what 'No Will' is all about." It's easier to lead a nation into defeat than it is to lead a nation into victory, and Pelosi, Murtha and their crew are, as usual, taking the easy route.

Art: Blue Crab Blvd.