[Vision2020] WE DELAY AT OUR TROOPS' PERIL

[lfalen]

-----Original message-----

From: "Crapo News Release \(Crapo\)" newsclips at crapo.senate.gov
Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 11:42:36 -0700
To: 
Subject: WE DELAY AT OUR TROOPS' PERIL

FOR RELEASE 	                        CONTACT:           Susan Wheeler
(202) 224-5150
Week of May 6, 2007		                 Laura Thurston Goodroe
(202) 224-7500

			WE DELAY AT OUR TROOPS' PERIL
		Guest opinion submitted by Idaho Senator Mike Crapo

Perhaps the most important responsibility of the federal government
under our Constitution is national defense.  When that responsibility
requires that we commit troops to war, we are obligated to provide them
the means to accomplish the mission as determined by military leaders in
the field.  That support includes providing physical resources-equipment
and training-and we stand behind the military's determination of
effective rules of engagement.  Our military deserves nothing less.
When military's ability to accomplish its mission is hamstrung, wars
drag out and more people die.  

Congress passed a war funding bill that the President has rightly
vetoed.  It's foolhardy to announce troop movement and management
decisions.  It's even more improper for Congress to micromanage war
operations:  Imagine what many in Congress would say if General Petraeus
decided to run war operations out of an office on Capitol Hill rather
than where battles are occurring.  Congress has an oversight role but
that doesn't include making battlefield decisions.  

Politicizing troop funding by tying it to the debate over the war in
Iraq is recklessly dangerous for our troops in the field.  It's
interrupting essential supply operations and training as well as
lowering morale.  Every day Congress delays, our servicemen and women
are at greater risk.  

Delaying troop funding means that:

*  Ongoing training of Iraqi security forces, essential to their ability
to take the lead role in security operations, is disrupted;
*  Purchases and deliveries of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles
(MRAP) are on hold.  MRAP's were fully and unanimously funded by the
Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year, and are predicted to
reduce Improvised Explosive Device casualties in vehicles by 80 percent.
*  Regular and necessary repair and maintenance of equipment will be
disrupted.
*  Training of guard and reserve units in the U.S. will be curtailed,
adversely affecting troop readiness.
*  Most distressingly, the Department of Defense has alerted Congress
that if funding is not approved by mid-May, troop rotations will be
affect, and extensions of tours of duty in Iraq are likely due to the
reduction in training capability stateside.  

Many in Congress assert that there is plenty of time to get funding to
our troops.  This is simply not true.  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff and the Secretary of Defense have testified that funding delays
will detrimentally affect troop readiness and our military families.  

Americans are divided about how the war should be managed and we want
our military home safely and as quickly as possible.  This is an
important debate and, as a democratic society, one that must continue.
But, a troop funding bill is the wrong legislative arena in which to
hold this debate.  

A wise Idahoan-a mother of five boys, one currently serving in the
Marine Corps-wrote to me and reminded me of the words of Winston
Churchill:  "If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win
without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure
and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to
fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival.
There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no
hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
We aren't America if we allow ourselves to be brought to our knees by
those who hate freedom.  American troops brought to their knees because
of inadequate training or equipment is a chilling condemnation of
Congress' failure in its Constitutional duty.    

Word Count: 595

To link directly to this news release, please go to:
http://crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/release_full.cfm?id=273476&&

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