Abandoning The Troops
Posted on | May 29, 2007
Digby takes on the idiotic notion that defunding the war would endanger American forces in the field, finding it symptomatic of the country’s intellectual crisis:
The Iraq funding debate is a perfect example of hundreds we could choose from. The bill provided for the troops in every way. But it demanded that the president begin to plan for the withdrawal of those troops from Iraq by certain dates. Both of those things were supported by the people, in large numbers. The president vetoed the bill and this action was explained to the American people — by Democrats as well as Republicans and the media — as being done because Democrats were refusing to fund the troops. It was, of course, precisely the opposite.
So, we are stuck trying to work out reality based solutions in a political world that operates as if it is underwater. You can sort of see the vague outlines of what’s in front of you, but it’s distorted and wierd and everything moves in slow motion. For instance, one of the big questions that rarely gets asked by anyone is why in the hell we are “funding the troops” with emergency supplemental spending bills like this year after year in the first place? Why would a vastly powerful and wealthy country such as ours be unable to plan for the troops’ basic necessities in a defense budget in the trillions? It’s absurd, ridiculous, and yet everyone accepts the fact that the troops could be left foraging for food and bullets in the middle of Baghdad, and the only question is whether the Democrats and the President are to blame because they failed to pass a bill before Memorial Day.
It’s a blackmail scam that the Bush administration has been pulling successfully since the beginning of the war.
We continue to fall for these tricks.
Comments
Leave a Reply
