The Democratic leadership just will not give up. Nevermind that the only legislation they have managed to get through since they took control in January is a minimum wage amendment that rode on th back of the Defense supplemental, they continue to introduce anti-war legislation that can not survive a guaranteed veto by the President.
The latest effort is being led by the ethically challenged, ex-marine, Representative John Murtha.
"This is big time," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said of the upcoming fall debate. "When you get to September, this is history. This is when we're going to have a real confrontation with the president trying to work things out."
What makes this bigger than all the other times?
Democrats, of course, claim that Iraqi's are not doing enough to enable their own security forces. But if that's the case, why don't they concentrate on fixing this?
"It is difficult to understand why the equipping of our forces has been so slow," he said at a breakfast with reporters. "The Iraqi government requested weapons and equipment for its forces from the Americans and was ready to pay with its own money for them. We have been waiting and waiting and waiting."
..."Americans are fully protected with the latest equipment and we are just cannon fodder," he said, adding that delays in delivery of equipment have gotten so bad that Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, had been forced to buy assault rifles for the country's police force from China.
...Sumaida'ie's remarks seemed to reflect a larger a sense of frustration that Iraqis are being asked to perform an extraordinarily difficult task, rein in the warring factions and terrorist groups in their country, without having sufficient means.
"There is general frustration in the Iraqi government at the rate in which Iraqi Armed Forces are being equipped and armed," Sumaida'ie said in a later statement sent to reporters. "This is a collaborative effort between the Iraqi government and the government of the United States, and the process is not moving quickly enough."
Now that's something Congress could fix, if they wanted to spend just a fraction of the effort expended investigating every time anyone in the Administration farts; in public or in private.
But that would require that they actually legislate instead of posture. More importantly, that might contribute to a successful conclusion in Iraq.
And they can't have that.
