Message To Kline: Body Bags Are Permanent

In a dear colleague letter two GOPers urged Republicans to dodge debating the Democratic Iraq resolution in terms of international terrorism and discuss “radical Islamists and the consequences of not defeating radical Islam in Iraq”. So it was with little surprise that Rep. John Kline was picked by the GOP to speak on the House floor against the Democratic nonbinding resolution that ask the Bush administration to face the facts.

Kline, as one of the Bush’s administrations key pro-war Republicans, argued that the Democrats NONBINDING resolution would demoralize US troops and embolden the enemy. Kline even went so far as to imply the Democratic election win was a win for the terrorist! As usual Kline tried to used scared tactics to bully the Bush administrations position through the House.

Kline warned that Democrats want to ‘defund’ the war…as if most Americans would find that offensive?! Gee, defund a war that was started with false US intelligence data intentionally and knowingly used by the Bush administration, then micromanaged by the executive branch with no oversight while billions of US tax dollars for reconstruction has disappeared and all along our troops have had inadequate numbers and armor. Hmm… What's to dislike...My question to Kline would be, why wasn’t this done years ago? Apparently, as many as 40 of the dissenters are from Kline’s own party, including Jim Ramstad, of Minnesota.

Under the Democratic plan any troops sent to Iraq must be deemed fully trained and equipped under existing military standards. The resolution is not to deny support, but to slowly choke off the war by stopping the never ending deployment of troops from units that have seen combat for an excessive four straight years!

The White House and GOP leadership have conceded defeat on this resolution and are now digging in for a fight regarding the funding of the additional 21,800 surge troops. But it's time to stop the bleeding both in dollars and lives. As Rep. Ric Keller of Florida pointed out, “a ‘surge’ of troops has already been attempted in Baghdad. The benefits were temporary….the body bags were permanent.”