Vets to Democrats: "Show Our Troops the Money"

Via email:

If House and Senate Democrats really supported American troops in harm's way, as they purportedly claim, you'd think they wouldn't hesitate to provide them with the resources they need to successfully complete their mission. Not so with this Democratic Congress. Democratic leaders continue their futile attempts to tie troop funding to political strings and billions in unrelated pork spending that undermine the efforts of General Petraeus and our troops on the ground.

In the Wall Street Journal this morning, David Kurpius, the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Paul Morin, the national commander of The American Legion, penned an op-ed to show Democrats what "supporting the troops" actually means. Excerpts below:

"Everyone wants the war to end, but how it ends is important. So, with all due respect to the narrow majority in the new Congress who voted to withdraw the bulk of our 140,000 troops from Iraq next year, you are wrong.

"As our elected representatives, you were wrong to force a showdown with a president who vowed to veto any measure that would force a troop withdrawal. And you were wrong to add almost $20 billion - for programs unrelated to the war - on top of the $103 billion requested by the Defense Department ...

"Not funding direct combat operations is the same as having your hands tied in a knife fight. And while some may regard the rhetoric as normal political-speak, our troops are taking it personally, because they know that not being allowed to take the fight directly to the enemy is exactly what happened in Korea and Vietnam. They don't want to repeat history.

"This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This issue is about American men and women who we sent to war and who now some want to pull back before they finish their job. The time to debate the war is not in the funding bill that keeps our troops alive. If they need funds, it is the responsibility of Congress to provide them the money so that they can accomplish their mission.

"The sooner their job is done, the sooner they come home. That's how you 'support the troops.'"

It's as simple as that. As House & Senate GOP leaders said earlier this week in a letter to Speaker Pelosi, "Every day we don't fund our troops is a day their ability to fight this war is weakened." Democrats have had more than two months to craft and pass a clean troop funding bill. Now it's time for them to do what's right.

UPDATE: The full letter can be read here.