Posted on 02/23/2007 9:00:42 PM PST by sruleoflaw
Dear Fellow Conservatives,
Here's an op-ed I wrote for my local newspaper (The Tracy Press) about the vote by our new congressman, Jerry McNerney, who is an anti-war leftist. Like other Democrats, McNerney backed a resolution to support the troops that would hinder sending reinforcements into Iraq to help the troops. In November, Mr. McNerney defeated Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Tracy, CA.), who was the chairman of the House Resources Committee -- and in about 650 days we would like to return the favor. Please use this op-ed material for local letters to the editor to oppose the Democrats and "White Flag Republicans" who are undermining the military. For the record, a recent AP-Ipsos poll showed that 68 percent of Americans oppose cutting off money to the troops. We want to put some fear into the hearts of those who would undermine our troops in the field.
Steve Wampler
McNerney on hot seat over Iraq vote
Steve Wampler/For the Tracy Press Friday, 23 February 2007 His Voice: A letter from Steve Wampler
In less than two months in office, Rep. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton and his fellow congressional Democrats have managed to draw criticism from both liberal and conservative media for their deceptive Iraq war political tactics.
House Democrats, including McNerney, have adopted a resolution that claims to “support” the troops, but rebukes President Bush for sending more than 20,000 additional combat troops to Iraq to help them achieve their mission.
The liberal New York Times called the Feb. 16 House vote a “clever maneuver to dress up a reduction in troop strength as a ‘support the troops measure.’”
But it was the liberal Washington Post that exposed the plan that Rep. John Murtha — and presumably McNerney and others — has to choke President Bush’s powers as commander-in-chief and to undermine any chance of success in Iraq.
In a Feb. 17 editorial, the Post called the Democrats’ slow-bleed strategy a “crude hamstringing” of the military commanders and their ability to deploy troops. It may well be the first time in the nation’s history that Congress has tried to control strategic battlefield decisions.
The Post noted that Murtha wants to attach restrictions to a war-funding bill that would prohibit the redeployment of units that have been at home for less than a year, stop the extension of tours beyond 12 months and prohibit units from shipping out unless they train with all of their equipment. His aim, he made clear, is not to improve troop readiness but to “stop the surge.”
So why, the Post asked, doesn’t Murtha simply remove the money for the Iraq war from the appropriations bills, something he can clearly do, rather than seek to micromanage the military in a way that may be unconstitutional Because, Murtha said, it will deflect accusations that he is trying to do what he is trying to do.
In other words, the dirty political game works like this: Murtha, McNerney and other Democrats get to hamstring the president and hinder our chances in Iraq while trying to insulate themselves from responsibility for what happens in Iraq from their actions and use the soldiers as political cover.
Two conservative publications, The Wall Street Journal and Investors Business Daily, were more blunt about what McNerney and his fellow Democrats did last week.
“We can only describe this week’s House debate on a vote of no-confidence in the mission in Iraq as one of the most shameful moments in the institution’s history,” said The Wall Street Journal in a Feb. 15 editorial.
Branding the Democrats’ move as “unparalleled perfidy,” Investors Business Daily writers said, “The party of John Murtha shamelessly seeks to defund and defeat U.S. troops on the battlefield and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Congress the terrorists wanted is doing their bidding.”
Ironically, as McNerney and other Democrats seek to pull out the rug on our Iraq efforts, the new Bush policy of sending reinforcements and clearing and holding Baghdad seems to be showing small signs of success.
On Feb. 17, Col. Qasim Atta al-Musawi, an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, said that the level of violence in Baghdad is down by 80 percent. Near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, Iraqi forces killed Abu Abdullah al-Majemaai, a deputy to al-Qaida’s Iraqi commander. Mahdi army leader Muqtada al-Sadr is believed to have fled to Iran. In Anbar Province, a dozen tribal leaders who are angry about al-Qaida murders in their midst have signed up with U.S. Marines to provide small armies of police and rapid-reaction forces.
McNerney and other Democrats might also talk with a few more members of the U.S. military, who voted overwhelmingly for Bush in 2004, before they push another “cut-and-run” disaster on the nation and our military.
Staff Sgt. Manuel Chargin, who served in Afghanistan and is in his second tour in Iraq, told NBC News that the people back home can’t have it both ways. “One thing I don’t like is when people back home say they support the troops, but they don’t support the war. If they’re going to support us, support us all the way.”
Spec. Tyler Johnson, 21, said, “People are dying here, you know what I’m saying, you may support ... oh, we support the troops, but you’re not supporting what they do, what they sweat for, what they bleed for, what they die for. That just don’t make sense to me.”
And it probably doesn’t make sense to the 66 percent of Americans in an IBD/TIPP poll in February who said a victory in Iraq is very important or somewhat important and the 58 percent who said they are very hopeful or somewhat hopeful the U .S. will succeed in Iraq.
McNerney ought to spend less time with his liberal, anti-war friends and more time thinking about American national security, how our 1993 retreat in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to 9/11 and what many of our soldiers think.
Steve Wampler, a Tracy resident, is a former radio talk show host. He holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England.
Bump for getting this out to hold the Dems accountable.
Well said, and I'll follow it up with a letter to McNerney. These cut-and-run defeatists have to know the American people are against them on this - we're not quitters and losers like they are.
McNobody won mainly because of Pombo's Abramoff factor.
The good people of Contra Costa County won't be fooled twice by this "support-the-troops-but-screw-their-mission" fraud.
If Guy Houston runs in 2008, the seat swings right back to the GOP.
Democrats should remember the 1980 election. It was a backlash against the pacifism of Jimmy Carter and the congressional treason in 1975 that handed Indochina to the communists on a silver platter
You and others might remind McNerney and some of the other congressional representatives that a January AP-Ispos poll showed that 68 percent of the American people DO NOT favor cutting off funds to the troops in Iraq. I wonder if the Dems' polling shows the same thing. We need to hold them accountable -- and make sure the American people know exactly what is happening.
You're right -- and SHAME on those who stayed home. I worked election day seeking to turn out GOP voters for Rep. Pombo against McNerney.
Defeat the Defeatists in 2008!!
I would urge all of you -- If you have Dem congressmen who voted for the "Embolden the Enemy Act" or nonbinding resolution -- to consider sending my op-ed to your newspaper -- and you can be the local author. You are welcome to use it in other parts of the nation. We need to expose the Democrats. The quotes from the Wall Street Journal and Investors Business Daily are great for letters to the editor.
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