A Road to Success in Iraq?

Well the die is cast. Today the Senate voted to pass the Ill-fated Appropriations Bill passed earlier by the House is now on its way to the President. The Bill providing $123 Billion in military funding and domestic programs aid, passed the Senate by a vote of 51 – 47 with two Republicans, Hagel (the senates new version of John Murtha) and Smith, jumping ship to vote with the Democrats. The Bill, which the President has stated repeatedly he would veto will more than likely return to the houses for the possible overturn vote. A vote that both houses know will not be able to sustain a two thirds majority in either house let alone together.

But does this relinquish the President of any responsibility? Not hardly. After four years of going it alone, with some of his supporters in the Congress, the war has been terribly mismanaged. Both on the ground and in the administration. Several generals that have served in Iraq since the action started and some of the retired generals have tried to explain it to the president that the troops can not win the battle alone, diplomacy must be a open avenue to pursue as well. With more and more scandals or so called scandals coming to light, things do not look well for the Bush Administration. However, be it understood that the Democrats are doing everything in their power to strip the President of any resemblance of power or authority with many wasteful committee hearings costing the Public millions. From the GSA scandals to the Justice Department scandals, much of what the democrat led committees are hunting are purely ghosts.

Now the question becomes what of the troops? What will their fate be if this funding does not reach them before the end of April? Sources say that they will no longer be able to provide maintenance on their vehicles and equipment, and funding for various ongoing projects. Will the newly arriving troops be provided the equipment and materials that they need? But even more than this, what message has the newly formed Department of Defense (the Congress) sent to the troops. Are they telling them that they no longer have confidence in them? Without hesitation, YES. Are they telling Gen Petraeous, whom was just recently given a unanimous vote by the Congress to take over the Iraqi battle, that they no longer have confidence in him to conduct the mission? Again, the answer is YES.

The leaders of both Houses, Pelosi and Reid, are pretty much floating the boat at this point. Both think that now the President must “negotiate” with them to get things done. To a certain extent that is true, but not necessarily a must. The Democrat led Congress are the ones that should have, at the beginning of all this, stepped forward and conducted meetings with the president as to what possible avenues were available, before they forced the Presidents hand. The President does not carry the power to provide funds for the troops, this falls to the Congress. Even though the funding was provided in the bill, there were unconstitutional strings tied to it. The founding fathers provided that the President to be the Commander and Chief of the military, not the Congress. The Congress has the power of the purse to either fund or not fund the war, but not dictate it. So the Bill, though providing funds, should have collapsed on itself. However, since the newly elected DOD has stepped up to the plate challenging the power of the President, they are to be held responsible.

My greatest concern is how many troops are going to suffer or die because the new DOD wants to play with their lives and jeopardize the outcome of the mission. There is plenty of blame to go around, both republicans and democrats should be ashamed of their conduct and inability to look at the long term effect of this war, for both winning and failing.