Webb vs Warner

Another quick pointer, this one to Jon Carroll's column on the Webb bill and John Warner:

The Iraq war has created soldiers who are distracted from their mission and disoriented when the job is complete. Not the soldiers' fault; anyone can crack under the strain, and adjustment to civilian life is inevitably difficult. Nevertheless, we are badly damaging two nations, and the effects will be felt for years.

The Bush administration's indifference to our fighting forces is legendary. They utter "support the troops" whenever possible, which they back up by not supporting the troops. Had the invasion force been the right size to begin with, the unfair tours of duty would not have been necessary. If the invasion had never happened, we might actually have had a chance to help in the quest for international peace.

But Webb's bill was narrow; it addressed only the issue of extending tours of duty and abusing "stop loss" policies. Naturally, the Pentagon was against it, saying it would "interfere with complex troop deployment schedules." Well, duh - that was the point. And the Bush administration, which sees everything it doesn't agree with as an attack on the heart of the presidency, lobbied hard against it.