Are you happy now, Democrats? (RELATED: HOUSE FAILS TO OVERRIDE VETO)

Posted by: Sister Toldjah on May 2, 2007 at 1:50 pm

(5/3 Update: Dems back off the timeline ‘requirement.’ )

——

The Democrats political games with the war supplemental are already starting to affect the military:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The standoff between President Bush and congressional Democrats over a war funding bill already is delaying some military training and orders for spare parts, Pentagon officials said.

Bush on Tuesday vetoed legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress that would continue to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but set a timeline for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq.

The bill would have required U.S. combat troops to begin to withdraw on October 1, with a goal of a complete pullout within six months.

“This is a prescription for chaos and confusion,” Bush said, explaining his veto of the legislation. “It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing.”

The president and congressional leaders have agreed to meet to discuss a compromise. (Full story)

In the meantime, military officials said some effects are already or will soon be felt.

According to the Pentagon, the Army two weeks ago told commanders to purchase fewer parts, delay repairs on training equipment and postpone nonessential travel.

This month, the Army also will freeze hiring for civilian jobs, release temporary workers and sign no new contracts.

An Army official said these disruptions will hurt military readiness.

[...]

Without new funds, orders for what the Army considers the No. 1 lifesaver against roadside bombs, MRAPs — Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected vehicles — will be canceled. About $3 billion for the vehicles is tied up by the stalled legislation.

“We can build what we can get the funds to build. It’s strictly an issue of money,” outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker told a Senate panel in March.

The vehicles provide four to five times the protection of an armored Humvee. They have V-shaped hulls that deflect blasts from improvised explosive devices — IEDs — outward and away from passengers.

This is obscene.

So much for their BS about “supporting the troops”! Not that most of us ever believed it anyway.

The President is set to meet with House and Senate ‘leaders’ today to discuss a ‘compromise.’ Don’t back down, Mr. President.

BTW, here’s the transcript of the President’s presser last night explaining his veto.

Update: The House, by a vote of 222 to 203, failed to override the President’s veto of the war supp.

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81 Responses to “Are you happy now, Democrats? (RELATED: HOUSE FAILS TO OVERRIDE VETO)”

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  1. Doc Washboard says:

    Let me point out that Blix, in the quotes you provided, didn’t say that Iraq was necessarily blameless, but he was the one saying, “If” and, “It looks like” and “let’s find out the facts”–really the only one on either side of the discussion who was open to both sides of the WMD issue and wanted to wait until inspections were complete to make up his mind.

  2. sanity says:

    So when do we stop?

    When the Iraqi’s can stand on their own, their army and police trained, and they can defend themselves against terrorist from Iran, and insurgents within.

    It takes time.

    Meanwhile we help root out terrorists, make Iraq safer, remove bombs, bomb making material, IEDs and weapon caches, capture or kill Iranian operatives, ect.

    Because of hte media there is very little reported of the good that is happening in Iraq, and while yes, it is still a dangerous place, it is getting better, and there is more going on there than just killing – there is rebuilding schools, infrastructure, new businesses opening up all over hte place, reaching out to village leaders who in turn help joint Iraqi and US operations by turning in inurgents and terrorists….there is alot going on that just doesn’t get reported by the media, because…as they say…if it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead.

  3. Severian says:

    Yeah Sanity, we should have left well enough alone, after all, Saddam was “contained.” Just like North Korea is “contained” by the wonderful UN brokered armistice and sanctions. Of course, we still have to maintain a massive troop presence in S. Korea, 50 YEARS later, and the Gargoyle is making nukes, exporting guided missiles and nuclear technology, and has presided over massive famine and economic failure that has led to the death of millions, in addition to running gulags that make the Soviet ones look like Club Med. But he’s “contained” and not a threat to anyone! Why, North Korea is hardly a bother at all.

    8-|

  4. Great White Rat says:

    Doc still has the blinders firmly in place:

    Sadaam was paying suicide bombers. He wasn’t paying the bad guys who really interested me, though: the ones on September 11.

    So just to be absolutely clear: you have little or no interest in preventive measures against terrorists. They don’t show up on your radar until they launch a 9/11-style attack. After they kill a couple of thousand people, then you’ll be persuaded to take action. And then only against anyone who can be clearly shown to have had a hand in the specific attack.

    Significantly, you don’t say exactly what action you would support (military strikes? sending a state trooper to Tora Bora to serve a restraining order?), and you’ve still failed to provide any reasoning to support the idea that terrorism will somehow stop if we simply close the ports, raise the drawbridge, and hide under our beds behind a moat.

    Seems to me you’re much more concerned with collateral casualties among the Iraqi population (which, by the way, could be cut alsmost to zero overnight if AQ and its allies simply withdrew) than you are about future casualties here from reinvigorated islamofascist attacks. But then, you did say you’re a member of the left, so it’s not entirely surprising.

  5. Lorica says:

    Wasn’t “containment” the goal of Vietnam?? Seems to me that concept doesn’t work very well at all. – Lorica

  6. Doc Washboard says:

    On the other hand, Lorica, Vietnam didn’t turn out to be the threat that we were told it was going to be. The dominoes never fell.

  7. Severian says:

    The dominoes never fell? What are you, completely ignorant? First Vietnam, than Laos and Cambodia, fell to the Communists in succession. Talk about being completely blind to anything that doesn’t fit your partisan world view.

    Ignorance is not a virtue, but liberals seem to treat it as one. Ignorance is not only bliss, but apparently a requirement to be a liberal.

  8. NC Cop says:

    On the other hand, Lorica, Vietnam didn’t turn out to be the threat that we were told it was going to be.

    The millions of people slaughtered after the communists took over, might disagree with you……if they were alive to tell it. But then again, as long as they are not your relatives, you don’t care.

  9. NC Cop says:

    Except poor old Hans Blix, if you’ll remember: he was the only guy who was right,

    Really???

    “Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance — not even today — of the disarmament, which was demanded of it and which it needs to carry out to win the confidence of the world and to live in peace.”

    That seems pretty clear that he is saying Iraq is NOT cooperating with the disarmament requirement of the United Nations. This is approximately 2 months before the invasion began.

    13,000 chemical bombs were dropped by the Iraqi Air Force between 1983 and 1988, while Iraq has declared that 19,500 bombs were consumed during this period. Thus, there is a discrepancy of 6,500 bombs. The amount of chemical agent in these bombs would be in the order of about 1,000 tonnes.”

    Not much gray area in that one either. This was also Jan. 2003 as the U.S. began to surround Saddam. Blix may have been against the war, but I do not read much from these quotes saying that he didn’t believe Saddam had those weapons.

  10. Doc Washboard says:

    Holy toledo, why the anger from everyone? I just followed a link to what seemed like an interesting thread, hoping to have a civilized back-and-forth. It’s not like I’m actually affecting national security policy or anything.

  11. Lorica says:

    Dov, Sev took you to task for being an idiot, so I don’t have to, Thank You Severian. Your answer is exactly why I believe that Libs shouldn’t be teachers. They are abit to concerned about the agenda, and not truly concerned about the overall scheme of things. Whatever fits the agenda, that is the motto of todays Liberal party.

    Doc, in all honesty, you are to blind to continue discussing this with. I get abit tired of wasting my time, going over and over and over and over everything with you guys. I just wish there was a way to get you all in the same room and start pointing out the real facts of history, and not this fantasy fairytale you all have been taught. It is very exhausting. – Lorica

  12. Severian says:

    You’ll appreciate this Lorica, knowing you to be a student of the classics (found this at HotAir, which saved me from digging the books off the shelf in the library):

    [I]f you yield to a threat, you do so in order to avoid war, and more often than not, you do not avoid war. For those before whom you have thus openly demeaned yourself by yielding, will not stop there, but will seek to extort further concessions, and the less they esteem you the more incensed will they become against you. On the other hand, you will find your supporters growing cooler towards you, since they will look upon you as weak or pusillanimous. But if, as soon as you become aware of your adversary’s intentions, you prepare to use force, even though your forces be inferior to his, he will begin to respect you, and, since those with which you were allied will now esteem you, they will be ready to help when you begin to arm, which they would never have done had you given up.

    –Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses Book II, Chapter 14.

    This has been known since at least when this was written, in 1517. So, the facts regarding how the world works and how enemies respond to weakness has been known for at least 500 years. We all know it has been known by people who are willing to look at reality for as long as there have been people. But still the modern liberal acts like somehow this is all up for debate and unproven.

  13. Severian says:

    After finding no audience for his inane comments, Doc pulls another tried and true (figuratively speaking of course) liberal “debating” technique, suddenly attempt to shift the focus to the tone of the conversation, and “what? Lil’ol me ain’t important, I’m just yada yada yada…”:-@

    We’re tired, tired of fools with no knowledge or understanding coming around, spouting the same old tired talking points that have been shot down dozens if not hundreds of times before. We’re tired of the ignorance, the blind partisan hate, and the inanity. We realize that unlike your protestation of “I don’t set policy” idiots like you and your fellow travelers in the Democrat party do set and influence policy and the mood of the country with your idiotic talking points and deliberate lies, as well as encouraging the very enemy we are fighting. We’re tired of the willful ignorance and the deliberate dishonesty.

    While it may or may not be true that everytime a bell rings, an angel gets it’s wings, everytime a terrorist car bomb goes off, a liberal spouts another talking point, and everytime a Democrat politician wails about the war being lost, a terrorist smiles.

  14. Doc Washboard says:

    Holy moses, Lorica, are you going to start attacking teachers now?

  15. Lorica says:

    See, thanks for proving my point, Doc. The present Liberal will do anything not to address the problems, let things come to a boil point, then do whatever it takes to deflect the real issues that have caused the problem. Like I always say, it is easier to nail Jello to the wall, than to get a Lib to admit they are wrong. – Lorica

  16. Lorica says:

    [I]f you yield to a threat, you do so in order to avoid war, and more often than not, you do not avoid war. For those before whom you have thus openly demeaned yourself by yielding, will not stop there, but will seek to extort further concessions, and the less they esteem you the more incensed will they become against you.

    Absolutely, but the fools we have to suffer, will always believe it is better to surrender than to fight. I am certainly happy our founding Fathers were not todays Liberals. – Lorica

  17. Doc Washboard says:

    You’re off the mark here, Lorica.

    I spend a lot of time on conservative blogs, mainly because I already know the Lefty ideas about things and I want to find out what the other side says.

    When I’m over at, for example, Confederate Yankee, I’m happy to admit my ignorance of firearm-related issues, and the posters there will explain either the technical aspects of guns or their perspectives on the second amendment–this is information and ideas that are new to me, and I’m happy to get them.

    Before I got to this point at CY, however, I had to run the gauntlet for months as the generally conservative posters attacked me for being a troll, and then made assumptions about my opinions and closed-mindedness on the issues, accused me of hypocrisy, and so on and so on. The interactions were, at first, absurdly mean and sarcastic, but they gradually mellowed so that now I can express my opinion about an issue without being attacked for it. I might get corrected, and I may or may not accept the correction as being valid, but at least the discussion is civil. In the end, I’ve learned either some technical information or a little bit about what the other side is thinking on an issue. I learned some eyeopening information about the militia (that we’re all apparently signed up for, whether we know it or not) because one of the conservative posters sent me a link to the federal law establishing the militia. There’s no way I would have found that info at a left-wing site.

    I’m willing to be patient here, if need be. As I mentioned before, there’s no point in hanging out at DailyKos because I already know how those folks feel about the issues, and I want to get the full picture. I got the impression from a post up above that NC Cop has been over in Iraq. Is that correct? If so, then his opinions about Iraq-related issues mean something. I’ll pit what I think against what he does, and, if it really seems like he has a point based on knowledge and experience, I’ll probably change the way I feel on the issue. I am, after all, in the “reality-based community,” and I’d like my opinions to be grounded in reality.

    Some issues, on the other hand, are pure judgment calls. Take, for example, the issue that started this thread: the veto of the war-funding measure. Either you think that Bush is the obstacle or that Congress is the obstacle, but the issue is not open to scientific proof or anything like that–it’s pure opinion.

    I know that some here–maybe most–will now say, “You’re a typical liberal piece of crap, Doc. You’re pretending to be open to persuasion, when actually you like roasting and eating fetuses,” or some such. Like I said, I’m willing to be patient. If the posters here are interesting and have something to teach me that I didn’t know before, I’ll wait it out until they decide that I’m not the archetypal Liberal they have in their minds. If there’s nothing to learn here, I’ll move on. I can take plenty of abuse before that happens, though. I don’t have to like it, but I can take it.

  18. Severian says:

    |-)

  19. Severian says:

    Man, what a whiney, self-absorbed, self-important, narcissistic little rant that was…