War veterans open House debate

Veterans from World War II through the current conflict in Iraq led off debate yesterday as the House of Representatives took up a resolution to oppose President Bush's troop increase for Iraq.

"Walking in my own combat boots, I saw firsthand this administration's failed policy in Iraq," said Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., a 33-year-old freshman and the first Iraq combat veteran to serve in Congress.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, 58, a California Republican and Vietnam veteran, argued a widely held opposing view, that the resolution signals "the first sound of retreat in the world battle against extremists and terrorists."

With the non-binding resolution expected to clear the House Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he'll try to pass the same language in the Senate at the end of this month, after Congress returns from a weeklong recess. The Senate deadlocked last week on a wordier resolution; the House's is 97 words.

Bush said he didn't plan to watch the debate, and intends to pursue the troop buildup whatever Congress says.

Even as the non-binding debate goes on, lawmakers on both sides are looking ahead to binding legislation that Democratic leaders might push through next.

The real wrangling begins next month when the House and Senate tackle Bush's $93.4 billion extra spending request for the current year's fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. This summer Congress will debate an additional $623 billion in spending on defense, including the wars, for the coming fiscal year.

It's on these war-spending measures that Democrats, especially in the House, will try to set conditions under which troops may be sent, when troops must come home or where they should be deployed.

Yesterday, opponents of Bush's 21,500-troop increase called on World War II, Korea and Vietnam vets, but ultimately they looked to Murphy to personalize the debate.

"I led convoys up and down Ambush Alley in a Humvee without doors," Murphy said. "The time for more troops was four years ago. Congress will no longer give the president a blank check."

"How many more street-corner memorials are we going to have for this war?" Murphy said. The president's plan "sends more of our best and bravest to die refereeing a civil war."

Some Republican veterans argued yesterday that the resolution would demoralize U.S. soldiers and is the first step toward Democrats' cutting off funds for the war.

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., an Army veteran from the 1950s and '60s, said any sign of weakness by the United States would embolden Iran to develop nuclear weapons and ratchet up prospects of a bigger war in the Middle East against Islamic fundamentalism.

"When you see people die in combat you just can't hardly stand it," Burton said. "War is hell. But sometimes it's necessary."

Keep speaking up, Hunter!

Just some background info on Hunter and his outspoken nature to go where not many(I don't think any) Republicans go with their spineless nature.

Hunter on Abu Ghraib(courtesyhttp://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3128goss_hunter_block.html : )
Probably the single loudest obstructionist voice in the House of Representatives in support of the Cheneyac "Beastman" policy in Iraq has been Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). Hunter has been able to use his position to block any meaningful inquiry into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and at every public opportunity, has railed against those who are demanding such an investigation. He even went after his GOP counterpart in the Senate, John Warner (Va.), for holding three hearings in two weeks on the scandal, practically accusing Warner of treason.

Under great public pressure, Hunter has since held one hearing, for part of one day, and has no intention of having any more. During debate on the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense Authorization bill, on May 19, Hunter declared, "We have had enormous publicity the last number of days about the mess at Abu Ghraib. I estimated we have probably devoted as much media attention to that mess involving now, as identified, some seven personnel, as we did to the Normandy invasion. And that is an imbalance. It is time to refocus." What did he want to refocus on? "The 135,000 great personnel doing their job in Iraq."

On June 14, when the committee took up a resolution of inquiry sponsored by some 40 Democrats, demanding the Pentagon be more forthcoming with documents relating to the prison scandal, Hunter placed the 6,000 pages of the report on the abuse and torture of prisoners filed by U.S. Army General Anthony Taguba (the Taguba Report) on a table at the head of the hearing room and railed at the Democrats, "Isn't that enough for you?"

Hunter on Guantanamo(courtesy http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050613-033125-4935r.htm:)

California Republican Duncan Hunter held a press conference to discuss the treatment of detainees at the island jail, and spent his opening statement going over a daily menu for prisoners that included oven-fried chicken and fresh fruit.

"This is what Osama bin Laden's bodyguards will eat several times a week. Lemon chicken, rice, broccoli, carrots, bread and two types of fruit," Hunter said, inviting a reporter to come eat with him.

Hunter was digging himself out of small hole he got into over the weekend when he said on a news program that the White House is divided over whether to close the jail.

"I think they've come to the conclusion, some members of the White House have come to the conclusion that the legend now, that the legend is different than the fact, and when that's the case you go with the legend that somehow Guantanamo has been a place of abuse and you close it down and you shorten the stories, you shorten the heated debate and you get it off the table and you move on," he said.

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