I’ll be brief.
In yet another stunning example of the hypocrisy and betrayal of trust that Congressional republicans exhibit towards the troops that they sent to Iraq based on specious evidence (at best) and are holding hostage there now with longer deployments, lack of proper training, rest, armor and equipment, John Cornyn is introducing a Senate resolution today that will condemn MoveOn’s ad from last week.
Never mind the fact that yesterday’s blocking of Webb’s amendment to provide our troops with the proper rest in between tours was shot down by Senate republicans. Never mind the fact that this was the eighth time this year that republicans blocked Democratic Party initiatives to listen to the will of We the People and change course in Iraq.
And, despite what you may or may not think of the MoveOn ad, not only did the public not care at all about it (in terms of “not supporting Petraeus”), but also that it was Petraeus who was in charge of security training in Iraq when nearly 200,000 weapons were “lost”, many of which are likely in the hands of insurgents in Iraq.
So here we are, not even 24 hours after the republicans in the Senate betrayed their oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States by voting against restoring habeas corpus (which is in Article I of the Constitution, I might add) as well as betraying the trust of our troops by voting down an amendment that would give our troops proper rest in between tours. And what is the pressing issue for Senator Cornyn and his republican colleagues? A motion to condemn an advertisement placed in a newspaper that criticized General Petraeus.
Was there any motion to condemn the Swift Boat liars? Was there any motion to condemn Rep. Boehner’s comments that equated the lives of our troops as a “small price to pay”? Or the votes that wouldn’t give our troops proper equipment or training? For all of the whining and finger pointing at a damn advertisement, it is real interesting to see just how much “supporting the troops” really means to Senators like Cornyn, John Warner, John McCain and dozens of others.
The chance to show how much you support the troops has come up eight times this year alone, not to mention all of the times over the past few years. And every single time, nearly every single republican in the Senate has come up woefully short. In the past 24 hours alone, they have come up woefully and disgracefully short not once but twice. And now the pressing order of business is to debate whether an ad should be formally condemned? This is how time should be spent while our troops still are stuck in the middle of a civil war? How many troops and Iraqi civilians will and have died or be injured over the past 24 hours?
Get real. This ad meant nothing in the scheme of things. People are still dying every day in Iraq. Bombings are still happening and Petraeus even said that he doesn’t know if being in Iraq is making the United States safer.
It’s time to debate real issues, otherwise there is no business even being in the Senate for petty playground arguments like this. Lives are at stake. The actions of republicans in the Senate have killed many more people than one advertisement that seemed to strike a nerve because it exposes a truth to the façade that is rapidly crumbling.
