RNC Chair/ Senator Mel Martinez: Passing Troop-Rest Bill Would "Demean The Troops"

[seafan]

From TPM Election Central



In a speech by RNC Chair/Senator Mel Martinez (FL) on the floor today...

He's explaining why passing Senator Jim Webb's bill giving the troops more rest would "demean their service"...


Martinez:

"The reenlistment rates of those who have served in the theater are larger than those of any other. And, in fact, it is a testament to their courage, to their valor, and their sense of duty to their country. I think we would demean their service if we were to say to them that there had to be a parity between the time in service out of the country and the time at home. The goal ought to be for us not to have 15-month deployments. The hope would be that these would never be necessary. But the mandate from congress that this is how we must operate our armed forces I think is ill-conceived, it is dangerous and does not serve either the national interest of our nation nor the interest of the soldiers on the field whom it is intended to serve.

"We should not have a subterfuge of policy to change direction in Iraq heaped on the back of our brave young men and women in uniform..."

Greg Sargent at TPM Election Central goes on to say:

The argument here appears to be that because the amount of service our troops have performed shows that they are heroic, it would hence "demean" them to reduce that amount of service by giving them longer rest time -- because it would deprive them of more time to be heroic.

What's more, the argument also appears to be that this would be a disservice to the troops because it would be "heaping on their backs" the fact that it changed our Iraq policies. In other words, the fact that the troops would get more rest should be something to be ashamed of if it resulted in a change of said policies. One might suggest that if our Iraq policies had to be changed in order to not burn out the troops, the blame for this should perhaps fall on those who made those policies.

.....

Message from Republicans to American fighting men and women:

'Screw you. Screw your families. Now get your a$$es back to Iraq, you know, for the Corporation.'


How much longer....