In a very obscure interview held by a "MoveCongress.org," Representative Murtha was absolutely correct in his assessment of this president and his demands on troops of the USA. He stated, Bush is always ready to redeploy and deploy more troops into a war zone, but, never does it with enough protection to better insure their lives while on deployment.
Since the troops were deployed in response to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, all the American people wanted from their Commander and Chief was to give the troops the best protection possible that would allow them to do the job and return home safely.
That never happened. Instead, what ensued was a mockery of that demand with little to no funds going for PROPER body armor. Not to mention Humvees properly armored. For years, the newsprint of this nation, primarily lead by The New York Times has repeatedly brought these issues before the public in a demand to better compensate the families of The Fallen and the better protect the troops from injury and death. To some extent the number of injured speaks to the fact the troops minimally had vests that protected their vital organs, but, returned with hugely maiming scars that would last a lifetime. Severed arms and legs have become the hallmark of the Iraq War.
"W"rongly 'sold' to the fearful American electorate after September 11th, Iraq became the next generation Vietnam. Based in fear of weapons of mass destruction of a disarmed and sovereign country, Bush took an understaffed military into battle to defeat a military that virtually didn't exist. With only a few scud missiles still in his command, Saddam Hussein's Iraq was an easy 'initial' victory. But, Bush never planned to secure the country from the volitility that laid latently within it's religious populations.
The Shi'ites of Islam which spans all of Arabia in groups such as Hizbollah all the way to the sovereign country of Iran had become radicalized. Over the many decades through advancing civilizations in Arabia the minority Shia were marginalized into an obscure culture out of the site of Western Journalism or Reality until there exploded an unrest in Iraq after the illegal invasion by Bush's military. The invasion set loose all the fears of all ethnicities and they armed themselves with weapons "W"rongly left unguarded and warehoused in the deserts of Iraq. As time went on the reality of this Civil War was becoming more and more evident and Bush dared to call it an insurgency.
The Central Government of Iraq was mostly exiles that taunted Cheney and Bush into the invasion in the face of every indication by the Global Community otherwise. As a result the people at the top of the government didn't have any contact within the country or it's mood for some time regardless of their claims. Their leadership has been virtually meaningless and to be quite honest, lately, Prime Minister Maliki and Bush colluded to 'paint' a landscape of Baghdad that was 'under control' by some cockamamy new leadership in the USA military including it's Defense Secretary. That deception quickly was put to rest when explosions began within 48 hours of the claim and the most recent attacks included direct assaults on an American compound.
The interview of Representative Murth, which can be viewed here (click on) reveals the most poignant criticism of Bush's lack of commitment to the troops to date. During the entire invasion, from 2003 and including today's date, Mr. Bush has stated the people of the USA should "Support the Troops" and if you support the troops then you support the war. This revealing insight by Representative Murtha brings light to fact, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney never once 'Supported the Troops' in a real way that would insure their lives and the INTEGRITY of the USA miltiary, but, instead cut corners and ignored the most challenging aspect of any war and that is how a Commander and Chief best protects his military while achieving the goals of battle.
Representative Murtha has done the USA a great service to point to the gross negligence of this administration to include in requests for military budgets the absolutely necessities of survival in battle that the troops need. The deaths and injuries of our troops falls directly on the shoulders of the Bush White House and it's negligence of their duties as Commander and Chief of USA Forces for never providing the protections our troops needed to bring them home. That resonates through all aspects of this illegal conflict including the recruitment techniques and the fact this war is so illegitimate in all aspects that no one in their right mind would enlist to serve under such men.
The Commander and Chief and his Vice President are incompetent and need to be removed from office. One of the real dangers of such men in powerful positions is that their overt desperation to continue their rhetoric and 'conquer' the very country they lead. I personally hope all 'fail safe' systems of our nuclear arsenal are intact and the remaining Joint Chiefs have a steady hand on the 'cause' to launch as there is a growing hostile dialogue about Iran. With depleted USA military to respond to aggressions it is uncertain the course Bush would take if he feels desperate enough.
I am quite confident the dialogue Representative Murtha has begun is vitally important. It speaks to the issues of how this country values it's troops and their NECESSARY deployments vs. the whims of incompetent leaders.
