Posted by The Crux |
Yesterday, a proposal that would have increased the resting period of troops being sent back to war in Iraq and Afghanistan fell short of the required 60 votes required in the Senate (NY Times and The Hill). All Democrats supported it; 43 Republicans and Joe Lieberman (I-CN) opposed it. (See roll call vote).
Sponsored by Jim Webb (D-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NB), the proposal would have required that troops be given as much time at home before being re-deployed as they had spent overseas. Webb and Hagel are decorated combat veterans, and Webb served as Secretary of the Navy from 1987-88 (see bio). Webb commented:
"It's very important that we just put a safety net under our troops... to reassure them that however long they're being deployed, they should be able to have that much time, at least, at home, in order to refurbish, retrain, have time with their families and mentally get prepared to go." (WaPo)
Most Republicans disagreed. In August, President Bush threatened to veto the minimum-rest proposal if Congress passed it.
As the wife of one of those soldiers just back from Afghanistan, and a vet in my own right, I thought that was ridiculous. Case in point is my husband's own unit. Back at the end of May, and with in just weeks, the entire brigade is on rotating mini-deployments and gearing for another long-haul deployment already.
Posted by: Kiki | September 21, 2007 at 06:49 AM