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Congress Can't Do It Either
by James Glaser May 9, 2007 What I am talking about is planning. We all know George Bush and his administration had no plan for George's war in Iraq—no plan for going in and no plan for getting out. That is why so many mistakes were made: not enough troops, the disbanding of the Iraqi army, nobody guarding Saddam's ammo dumps, standing by while the Iraqi people looted anything of value after the capture of Baghdad, not enough body armor for our troops, and not enough armored vehicles. I could go on and on, but what this shows is that nobody properly planned for this war in Iraq, and that is why we are in our fifth year of fighting over there. Congress can't plan either. There is a reason our troops are understaffed and under equipped. That is do to lack of planning, and you can't put all of that on the White House, as each House of our Congress has an Armed Services Committee, and for decades Congress has let our military get short-changed on equipment. Here is an example of how Congress does things. Last June the House Republican leaders decided that they wanted a memorial to honor our troops who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. That sounds like a nice idea, but as you might have guessed, they have already run out of space for the names of the fallen. The last name added was that of Lance Cpl. Luke Holler, a Marine from Texas, who was killed on November 2, 2006. Since then there have been 506 American troops killed, but there is space for only another 130 names. They just didn't plan for as many deaths as we have had (3,736 to date). Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from San Jose said, "It's just another example of how pathetically unprepared and unrealistic the supporters of this war have been." Of course for a Democrat to say that, is like the kettle calling the pot black. I don't seem to remember the Democrat side of the aisle jumping up and down when the need for body or vehicle armor became apparent, nor do I remember them asking for more troops. The fact is, nobody in Washington has done a good job in this so-called War on Terrorism. Nobody had a plan when the war started, and as far as I can see, nobody has a plan on how to win this war or how to get out of it. When I was in the Marine Corps, they had a sign up at one LZ in Vietnam that said, "Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance." I think they need a copy of that sign put up at our nation's capital. |
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