Latest Democratic Effort to Abandon Iraq Fails

The Senate just voted down an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that would have set time limits on how much time troops would have to stay home between overseas deployments. The measure offered by Jim Webb of Virginia was billed as a “support the troops measure” but would have the effect of making it nearly impossible to maintain sufficient troop levels in Iraq.

That’s the good news, the bad news is it garnered 56 votes (it needed 60 to pass).

I know that the current troop rotations plans are putting a tremendous stress on those who serve, their families and equipment but this was just a backdoor way to surrender in Iraq. Sadly, this was just the first effort, the Democrats will be back with more throughout the week.

I do blame the President former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Congress for not increasing the size of our forces. Yes, as Rumy so eloquently put it, you go to war with the Army you have not the one you’d like, but that doesn’t mean you are stuck with it forever and can never improve upon it.

And while I am sure the troops would like more time at home, it seems they’d love to win this fight even more.

Regardless of what’s happening in terms of recruitment, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines already serving are reenlisting at rates that surpass all expectations, according to defense officials.

Defense Department statistics for June, released yesterday, showed the Army missed its active-duty recruiting goal for the second consecutive month. Yet retention remained high across the board, 101 percent of goal for the active Army, 119 percent for the Army Reserve, and 107 percent for the Army National Guard, Maj. Anne Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman, told American Forces Press Service.

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Of particular interest, he said, are high retention rates among troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

posted by DrewM. at 07:52 PM

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