Failed in Your Duties

My lovely fiance wised me up to a pair of stories that illustrates just how much President Bush appears to have failed in his most important role as Commander-in-Chief. First, let me say that beyond all of the policy issues a president must contend with, your first loyalty must be to the armed forces, in my opinion. That is the job George Washington was entrusted with and strict loyalty to the troops has been the responsibility of each sitting president ever since. No leader, here or elsewhere, should ever flex their military muscle lightly. In the event that duty calls, as I believe it did in Afghanistan and Iraq, the president is beholdent to make sure that there are enough troops deployed, that they have all the tools they need, and when it's all over, each and every soldier is afforded all the accomodations befitting the hero's that they are.

In this task, President Bush has appeared to fail the men and women he is leading in the War on Terror.

First, there is this story: More Than 260,000 Can't Get VA Health Care

More than a quarter-million veterans considered to have higher incomes could not sign up for health care with the Veterans Affairs Department during the last fiscal year because of a cost-cutting move.

Those locked out - totaling 263,257 in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 - have no illnesses or injuries attributable to their service in the military and earn more than the average wage in their community.

The VA suspended enrollment of such veterans beginning in January 2003 after then-VA Secretary Anthony Principi said the agency was struggling to provide adequate health care to the rapidly rising number of veterans seeking it.

That year the VA population was about 6.8 million. About 7.5 million are enrolled today, with more than 5 million treated.

"There is no reason for the VA to give the cold shoulder to veterans who have served our country honorably," said Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

VA spokesman Matt Burns said VA provides world-class health care to veterans, "particularly our newly returning veterans, those with low incomes and those who have sustained service-related injuries or illnesses."

Iraq veterans are guaranteed health care if they enroll within two years of leaving the military.

Under the Bush administration, there has been debate about providing veterans health care. President Bush's budgets have included proposals to require some veterans to pay a portion of their care with co-payments, but Congress has repeatedly rejected that idea.

The fact of the matter is that whether or not you "need" VA benefits based on income or health issues unrelated to ones service, the vets were promised these benefits in return for service to the country. Period. There should be no debate about this. Slashing VA budgets and leaving any veteran out in the cold, regardless of their need, sends a horrible message about what this administration thinks of its soldiers, former and current.

This leads me to the next story.

Study: Army Stretched to Breaking Point

Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon.

Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon's decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by a realization that the Army was overextended.

As evidence, Krepinevich points to the Army's 2005 recruiting slump - missing its recruiting goal for the first time since 1999 - and its decision to offer much bigger enlistment bonuses and other incentives.

"You really begin to wonder just how much stress and strain there is on the Army, how much longer it can continue," he said in an interview. He added that the Army is still a highly effective fighting force and is implementing a plan that will expand the number of combat brigades available for rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 136-page report represents a more sobering picture of the Army's condition than military officials offer in public. While not released publicly, a copy of the report was provided in response to an Associated Press inquiry.

Illustrating his level of concern about strain on the Army, Krepinevich titled one of his report's chapters, "The Thin Green Line."

He wrote that the Army is "in a race against time" to adjust to the demands of war "or risk 'breaking' the force in the form of a catastrophic decline" in recruitment and re-enlistment.

Well it certainly sounds like we're ready to fight Iran now doesn't it? ::::rolls eyes in back of head:::::::

"We didn't know the insurgency would last this long," is not an excuse for this level of incompetance. The fact remains that the war plan, as designed by former Searle CEO, Donald Rumsfeld, did not call for overwhelming force in Iraq. He thought, mostly due to Chalabi, that overwhelming force wouldn't be necessary. This gross misjudgment has now resulted in over 2,000 and though that is the price of war, the situation in Iraq as it is right now, could have been avoided if this administration had just used some common sense. Have any of them ever played Risk before? You also send more than necessary to take over a territory. That's been the strategy since man began to fight an it will always be the strategy that wins wars. Once again, this is illustrative of this administrations failures to honor the integrity of the American military.

For shame.