Article: Republicans Vote To Continue Their Slow Bleed Of Our Troops In Iraq

All the argument is a whore and a cuckold, a good quarrel to draw emulous factions and bleed to death upon! -- Shakespeare It's become a 'cute' strategy for some republicans to accuse the Democrats of planning a "slow bleed" of our troops in Iraq because of their announced plans to direct the White House on the troops' training, equipping, and deployments in upcoming funding legislation as Bush vows to continue his bloody occupation. Over 3,133 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal occupation, with February already shaping up to be one of the bloodiest months for our troops as another Marine lost his life today in al-Anbar. Nothing could be more offensive than sing-song attacks on the integrity of those who have advocated against Bush since the beginning of the invasion, but, even more offensive, the attacks which are coming from the republican leadership are on the integrity of battle-hardened veterans like Rep. John Murtha. "I volunteered for a year's duty in Vietnam," Murtha told reporters in January. "I was out in the field almost every single day. We took heavy casualties in my regiment the year that I was there. In my fitness reports, I was rated No. 1. My record is clear." Without any shame, republican Rep. John Boehner has repeatedly described Murtha's plan to attach conditions to the upcoming Iraq supplemental funding bill as a "slow bleed" of the soldiers in Iraq. However, Majority Leader John A. Boehner did not serve in the military and can only speak about issues related to our nation's military as a politician, not as a person who has any life experience which would lend his attacks on Murtha's commitment to the troops any credibility at all. The man who stood beside Boehner as he taunted the distinguished veteran and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, was none other than G.O.P. Leader Roy Blunt who had also declined to serve when he had the opportunity. Indeed, the majority of Congressfolks have not served in our nation's military, yet feel no compunction about sending other Americans to fight and die in their war of convenience; nor do they feel any hesitancy at all about standing behind these troops as they send even more of them to fight and die in the middle of Iraq's warring factions. From their positions of relative safety behind the sacrifices of our soldiers, Boehner, Blunt, and others are content to keep our soldiers bogged down in Iraq in defense of Iraqis whose majority of citizens have said that they support attacks on our forces, and whose majority has asked over and over that we leave their country. Nothing could be as deadly as the certain attacks on our troops in Iraq which are now averaging three soldiers killed every day in the increased occupation. There can be no other more pernicious "slow bleed" than the unnecessary deaths of the 3,133 U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq defending the republicans' and the Bush administration's lies and excuses for keeping our nation's defenders hunkered down in the middle of the civil war zone. And now, Senate republicans have voted to continue enabling Bush in his "slow bleed" of our soldiers in Iraq as they blocked the latest Democratic effort to reign in his bloody occupation. Their argument is nothing more than a cheap political trick designed to allow Bush to continue sending more of our soldiers into his Iraq quagmire. The blame for the American blood that will surely be shed in Iraq as a result of Bush's escalation is firmly with the republican obstructionists as they callously "slow bleed" our troops into oblivion.