A WOLF IN SHEEPS CLOTHING

The Democrat controlled House of Representatives stuck a knife in the back of the brave men and woman fighting in Iraq yesterday. They did it while couching their perfidy in comforting words as you would expect someone to do who plans to kill you, but wants you to think he is being your friend. This dastardly act was in the form of a bill mandating equal time at home for military personnel, to that spent in Iraq before they return to fight.

"The House voted on Thursday to limit how quickly American troops can be sent back to Iraq after serving a rotation there, in the Democrats' latest challenge to Bush administration war policy," the New York Times reports. "The vote, requiring that active-duty members of the military get at least as much time at home as they served in Iraq before being sent back, passed 229 to 194."

This appears to the uninformed like a good deed. The truth is it is an idea hatched by those who have thus far failed to bring home the troops, and now plan to do it through this absurd and dangerous legislation.

Anyone who knows a thing about war, understands that when personnel leave the battlefield. They have to be replaced unless you want to present a weakened force to the enemy trying to kill you.

How many battles would we have won in the war against Japan and Nazi Germany if we rotated soldiers back home after a pre-determined time in the field? Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Battle of the Bulge, and many others would never have been won if it were not for the presence of battle hardened and tested troops who were in the fight until the end of the war.

Talk to any ex-military person who actually fought in combat, and they will tell you that the "grunts" who were replacements, were the first to be killed. The experience and horrors of war teach survival skills that replacements do not have.

It sounds good to the mothers, fathers, wives and children of those troops who would come home to be with their families. But how about those left in Iraq to fight without their required number of troops. A number determined by their military leaders not a cadre of power hungry politicians ,that they must go it alone?

Skills learned in battle become less effective the more the military person is away from the fight. When they finally do go back their ability to be part of an effective fighting unit will be lessened proportionate to the amount of time they are away from "country".

This war is not a football game where you have a half time and everyone goes in to rest and regroup. We are in a war against forces driven by religious fanaticism who will never quit until they or we are destroyed. What Congress did was a dangerous and dastardly deed, and will be vetoed by the President if he really cares about the boys and women fighting in Iraq!