First it seems Durbin the Dick, gets his "intel" from the media.... obviously the MSM.
Senator Durbin countered by citing news articles that said some of the new troops being sent to Iraq are going without adequate training or equipment. “Now who is standing behind the troops?” he asked.Wapo is now the source that "The Dick", Durbin is using as his expert opinion.
Yes, the media and their words, for the Democrats, is now much more expert in their opinions that General David Petraeus, James Baker and the host of experts they have testifying including the marine General, Pace.
General Pace has also testified of his support for the new plan which includes additional troops:
WASHINGTON – President Bush's plan to send additional forces to Iraq and to increase the military end strength sends an important message to the troops, the defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Senate Armed Services Committee today.
U.S. military commanders on the ground asked for and support the plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq to help stabilize the country, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told committee members.
"(Our commanders) have asked for additional forces and are happy to have additional forces in the pipeline," he said. These additional troops will give them the flexibility they need to "to reinforce success" already made or respond to unexpected increases in enemy action, he said. If conditions on the ground demonstrate the troop surge isn't needed, the pipeline "can be turned off," Pace said.
Speaking of the expert testimony brings up my next point in the article.
Congress bears responsibility for the deaths that follow their interference and defunding of a war.... including raising the question of forcing withdrawal.
Prof. Robert Turner of the University of Virginia suggested that Congress had made itself responsible for the deaths of the 1.7 million Cambodians estimated to have been slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge, by denying funds for President Nixon to wage war inside Cambodia. Similarly, he said Congress bore responsibility for the deaths of 241 marines killed by a suicide bomber in Lebanon in 1983 because it raised the question of forcing a withdrawal there.
History and historians have a major advantage over us that are in the here-and-now. They can look back and take the consequences of the actions we make NOW into their accounts, as they have done with Vietnam and Lebanon.
How many deaths will the historians lay blame at the feet of this new congress should they continue on the course of defeat for their political games?
That, of course, cannot be answered now.... but for historians the answer will be easy because they DO have the advantage of being able to see the consequences before writing about it in our history books.
If you have not already seen the video, go take a look at what our soldiers have to say about "supporting the troops, but not the mission". It is enlightening.
In the meantime, with all the talk and hype, we still haven't seen any alternate plan that will lead to SUCCESS.... that seems to be a word that is NOT in the anti-war, anti-military idiots vocabulary.
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