Recently, the commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq briefed Members of Congress on the progress being made and the challenges we continue to face in the Global War on Terror. The new direction devised by Gen. David Petraeus requires a combination of military, political and diplomatic force, and we must bear in mind that security in that region is dependent upon military force.If you've been listening to TIB Radio this weekend...and you should!...you will have heard the Republican Leader, my Congressman, and a Great American -- John Boehner -- speak on this topic in a number of clips. He is not making this stuff up. His story has not changed.
To be sure, a key component of this new direction requires the Iraqi government to step up and do its part. And I, like many others, hope to see more out of them soon.
Al Qaeda continues to be our biggest problem in Iraq . The radical jihadists we’re fighting have made Iraq the central front in their war against us, against our freedom and our values. This is not a war that we asked for, and it’s not a war that any of us want to be in. But we have a responsibility to provide our troops the resources to do the job we’ve given to them. And those resources cannot come with arbitrary timelines, restrictions on how our troops can operate or handcuffs for our generals on the ground.
We still have a long way to go. But I am confident that we will soon put together a spending bill that does not include surrender dates and millions of dollars of unnecessary pork that President Bush will sign so we can get our troops the resources they need.
There is a bipartisan majority in the Congress to support our troops without conditions, without surrender dates and without the excess spending in the version of the bill passed by Congress. President Bush has vowed repeatedly to veto this bill – and I encourage him to do that as soon as the legislation hits his desk. If the Democratic leadership does the right thing and brings a clean spending bill before the House, Republicans will support it.
In my office hang the seals of the branches our Armed Forces – the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. These seals remind me what we’re fighting for: the Army seal features the Liberty Bell and our Flag. It also contains the words, “This We’ll Defend.” It is a simple yet poignant reminder of what we’re fighting to preserve.
Do Democrats want to cut the funding for the troops? If so, they should say so and not play these games. Once again, Democrats have been revealed to be the Party of Defeat. They continue to complain that the strategy that the President has embarked upon is not successful while putting forth no plan for victory of their own.
It's about the Victory, stupid.
