How the GOP Supports the Troops

By filibustering the Webb Amendment, which was designed to ensure that combat units get at least as much downtime between deployments as they get in the theater of operations. Yes, fillibustering. The party of the self-righteous demands for "up or down votes" filibustered, betting that the Dems and defecting GOPers wouldn't be able to muster the 60 votes needed to bring Webb's proposal to the floor for the hallowed up or down vote.

So it died.

And the Republican senators who supported the filibuster while claiming to support the troops will, later today, have their flunkies lock up the office and head off to the bar for a cocktail or two before going home to snuggle into their beds and perhaps dream of the fundraising junkets they'll go on during their upcoming monthlong summer recess. And the boys and girls in Iraq will hit their racks in 110 degree heat so they can get up in a few hours to go out again the next day. And a few of them will leave their limbs and their lives on those miserable fucking streets. And their buddies who get through physically unscarred will get to look forward to a three-month longer stay than they'd bargained for, followed by a few months at home before they're shoved back into the grinder.

And we're called defeatists.

There is some hope, though, as more Republicans trickle over to the withdrawal side of the line.

Two of the Republicans who voted for the Webb amendment, Sens. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine) and Chuck Hagel (Neb.), announced this morning they would also support Democratic legislation, soon to come to a vote, that would begin troop reductions no later than 120 days after enactment. U.S. forces would then shift their efforts to targeted missions such as counterterrorism. The process would have to be completed by April 30, 2008.

"We have arrived at the crossroads of hope and reality, and we must now address the reality. We need to send a strong message from the United States Congress on behalf of the American people that the current strategy is unacceptable," Snowe said.

How long before even W has to address the reality of the mess he's made? Time should be counted in days. Unfortunately, our time in Iraq is counted instead in bodies.