So You Voted? So What??

While cruising various blogs I came across one that summed up the non-binding resolution to a "T". I have posted that blog entry in its entirety below. I hope you will stop in and visit Some Soldier's Mom. The following blog entry and all of the comments posted in response can be found here. Please be sure to stop at her page and leave yours.

Working on a longer post to bring the blog up current... but today it is magnificent weather here in the desert southwest and we're off to hike God's magnificent gift to us...

In the meantime, here is my message and my vent to the members of the US House of Representatives that voted in favor of the non-binding resolution not to support the "surge":

I don't give a damn what little weaselly words about "supporting our troops" you included in your resolution. I don't care about all your self-serving statements about what your friggin' "intent" was. You can say what you want to the media -- we KNOW what the effect is just as you knew when you voted: You slapped our Soldiers and Marines, our Sailors and Airmen... you undercut their authority on the battlefield... you have not helped them complete their mission but you have hampered them in their abilities to do so... you have put their lives at greater risk because you have told our enemy that they can and should.

You have told our men and women fighting that they can not do the job... that you have no faith in them... that you will not support them under any circumstances...

You have told them that no matter how well they have performed, how many schools they have rebuilt, how many hospitals and clinics they have refurbished... no matter how many innocent Iraqi lives they have saved from the brutality of Saddam's regime... no matter how many people have been liberated from oppression and despotism and might now live in democracy and freedom... you have told them that you do not, cannot and will not support them. You have told them that they and their mission are unimportant... that your politics are more important than they are and the job they do.

Most importantly, you -- you Pelosi, Murtha, Reid, et al. -- YOU have told those that seek to kill OUR troops -- kill OUR children -- that it is OK to do so because you have told them publicly and emphatically that the more deaths and injuries they cause to our troops, the more likely it is that we will cut and run... YOU will cut and run if you have your way.

So you voted. So what? It's meaningless to everyone BUT OUR ENEMIES. Were you trying to prove you don't like Bush? You didn't need this vote to tell us that. What exactly were you trying to prove that you couldn't have done in a letter to the President? You stood and voted to make yourselves feel important. And in doing so you made our troops and their safety and their mission unimportant.

And to boot, you have lied and misled the American public into thinking that the 21,500 troops are somehow "extra" troops -- that the President somehow added these troops... WE all know that these troops would be there regardless of your resolution and regardless of whether the media or the Democrats or the "I have no backbone or stomach for this" call it a surge. THESE TROOPS WERE GOING TO IRAQ ANYWAY.

If you all are sittin' around scratchin' yerselves trying to figure out what your job is, I have news for you: passing non-binding resolutions ain't it. As an American voter who has voted in every election for which I have been eligible for almost four decades, let me tell you that your job is not opposing the President. Your job -- the reason you are in the United States Congress, why some get to fly on military jets, why you collect handsome salaries and accrue exceptional pensions and have outrageously good healthcare benefits... Your job, ladies and gentlemen (and I use the terms loosely) is to act in the interests of all Americans... to protect us against all enemies foreign and domestic... to DO what is right and just... especially when we are at war -- note to Congress: WE ARE AT WAR. Your job is to support our troops AND THEIR MISSION in both WORD AND DEED... and if you can't do that, then get the hell out of Congress. Yesterday you failed in your jobs. You Miserably failed.

All I can say is thank God none of you is President and Commander-in-Chief. Thank God. And you have convinced this independent voter that it will be my life's mission for the next two years to be sure that "your" candidate is NEVER President and NEVER this Nation's Commander-in-Chief... because if nothing else, you have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that your candidate will never be trustworthy... can never be trusted to do what is best for America and her safety... you will NEVER be able to lead our Country's dedicated and selfless military when it is important to my country's safety. And you can never be counted on to do what is necessary to be sure that our military has the money, equipment and the support TO WIN once you send them into battle. And you DID send them into battle. You sent them to win... but now you're too chickensh*t to follow through.

You can be against the war and you can be appalled and saddened and grief-stricken by the wounded and the dead. God knows I am. But this resolution is not the way you show it.

So you passed this mealy-mouthed resolution... hiking up yer important pants today, are you? High-fivin' and hangin' yer privates all important-like? Well let me tell you from this military Mom, I think all of you that voted for this "ain't got the guts to put my money where my mouth is" little resolution are dogdung on the bottom of my boot and need to be scraped into the sewer. You should be ASHAMED of yourselves. And if you're not ashamed of yourselves, I certainly am ashamed of all of you.