1. How are you going to get adequate American Troop levels and provide for our security?
2. How are you going to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis?
While Kline asserts that American military recruitment goals are being met, many of our 'volunteer army' are in their third and fourth deployments, tapping into the nation's 'Ready Reserves' and our over used National Guard. Information now shows us that America's military is not prepared to meet current or future obligations : From Truthout:
They are the people who help us at Home Depot. They deliver our mail,patrol our streets. They are our neighbors and friends and fellow citizens who make up the National Guard and ready reserve. They have suffered heavy casualties and have held up under a tremendous burden as this nation has fought wars on two fronts. And we learn today they're about to be asked to give even
The problem is most US Army units are right now not ready for combat as we see here on this broadcast night after night. It's not as if the fight is going away. Now we have learned the Pentagon may send more Guard soldiers into battle.
And from the WAPost :
...even at existing deployment levels, the signs of strain on the active Army are evident. In July an official report revealed that two-thirds of the active U.S. Army was classified as "not ready for combat." When one combines this news with the fact that roughly one-third of the active Army is deployed (and thus presumably ready for combat), the math is simple but the answer alarming: The active Army has close to zero combat-ready brigades in reserve.…
Even the quadrupling of recruitment bonuses since 2003 has not been enough to attract adequate numbers to meet the Army's personnel goals. Although the Army has accepted more troops with lower aptitude scores and raised its maximum enlistment age, it still must grant waivers to about 1 out of 5 new recruits and has had to cut in half the number who "wash out" in basic training.
Less than 5% of those eligible to serve are enlisting (wonder why?)...Anyone feel a draft? Kline say's he's against the draft...So if not, What?
2. How are you going to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis?
A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.
In Baghdad, for example, nearly three-quarters of residents polled said they would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign forces left Iraq, with 65 percent of those asked favoring an immediate pullout, according to State Department polling results obtained by The Washington Post.
Another new poll, scheduled to be released on Wednesday by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, found that 71 percent of Iraqis questioned want the Iraqi government to ask foreign forces to depart within a year. By large margins, though, Iraqis believed that the U.S. government would refuse the request, with 77 percent of those polled saying the United States intends keep permanent military bases in the country.
Besides the lack of belief in Ameica's "Freedom", insurgent attacks against coalition troops are on average occurring every 15 minutes! Add to it that the number one cause of death is Iraq is now by murder or suicide...Both examples show the committment of the current residents in seeing the backside of our troops.
So tell me again Mr. Kline why we're fighting in Iraq? Was it for the vast majority of Iraqis who want us to leave immediately, or for the war profiteers? Is it worth the 100 attacks a day against our troops? The death? The destruction? This isn't leadership, it's madness.
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In a September 27 St. Paul Pioneer Press-Minnesota Public Radio poll, more than 60 percent of Minnesota voters said that given the costs and benefits, the Iraq war is not worth fighting.
In an early September poll of 1,150 Iraqis, done for the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, it found that over 60 percent of Iraqis said they approve of attacks on U.S. troops.
I'm sure Col. Kline would say the Iraqi people want us there. It must be like how the American people keep saying they want to eliminate the inheritance tax. The richest one percent on America wants to eliminate the tax, and I am guessing the richest one percent of Iraqis want our troops there.
Why is it, that under these Republicans, we continue to only do what the radical and wealthy want, and not what a majority of Americas want? Why do we, as Democrats, allow issues that involve less then 10% of our population to be driving issues in political contests? Kline and Bush is responsible for the deaths of nearly 3000 American troops, and a majority of those (in Iraq) are unjustified deaths. Why is it that we do not have a congressman (John Kline) that sees that a majority of Americans don’t want us in a Iraq, and an equal number of Iraqis not only don’t want us there, but are Ok that Americans are killed. Why doen't he do something? Where is the oversight?
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