How to Talk to a Republican #10 - National Security

My dad used to say Republicans start wars so Democrats can get us out of them. And I used to laugh at my father's wisdom.

The myth that Democrats are somehow soft on national security arose during the Congressional endgame of the Vietnam War. Johnson knew the war was lost during the last half of his presidency and Nixon knew it was lost going in. Still they escalated until finally the Democratic Congress of the age defunded the war. Then two years after the combat role officially ended, Saigon fell and the Republicans have been blaming Democrats for the defeat ever since. If we'd stayed a little while longer, the historical revisionists among them say, we could have won.

Fast-forward to 2007. Our all-volunteer army has been fighting two wars since 2002 and it is broken. Neither war is being won because resources we could have used to win the just war in Afghanistan were diverted to Iraq and now the Right is rattling sabers in Iran's direction. If I'm right in my reason for the Iraq war, not to remove Saddam nor to lock up Iraq's oil but to establish a more powerful strategic presence to defend oilmen in the Persian Gulf, we are in Iraq precisely to counterbalance Iran but I digress.

As a result of his two expeditionary wars, Bush has broken the Army. The soldiers broken in the war are receiving bureaucratic run-arounds to receive treatment in facilities crawling with roaches and contaminated with rat feces. If the damage is psychological, commanders are simply discharging the soldiers rather than treating them. While GOPers in their SUVs sport yellow "Support our Troops" ribbons, they perpetuate the troops' sacrifice through their excessive use of resources...

I could go on but if you want support of the troops, I can't think of a worse record than the Republicans' From endless war failed war planning to invading "on the cheap" to overextension of the National Guard to recruiting standards to the body armor crisis to armored HUMVEEs to substandard Veterans' hospitals to deployments lasting one day too short for the Guard troops to receive benefits, the Republicans have failed our soldiers at every turn. The only possible response to a GOPer who says "we're the party of national security" is a good belly laugh.

Unfortunately, the joke's on our troops.