Vocal opposition to President’s Bush’s strategy of sending more than 20,000 additional troops to help secure Iraq has grown to include some of the troops themselves.
A group of more than 50 active-duty military officers will deliver a petition to Congress on Tuesday signed by about 1,000 troops calling for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. “Any troop increase over here will just produce more sitting ducks, more targets,” said Sergeant Ronn Cantu, who is serving in Iraq.
Under the 1988 Military Whistleblower Protection Act, active duty military, National Guard, and Reservists may communicate with any member of Congress without fear of reprisal, even if copies of the communication are sent to others.
I’d kick them all out of the military. And yeah, the Military Whistleblower Protection Act makes that illegal, but I’d find a way to push them out anyway as they’re undermining the very principles our military is based on, and thus it’s effectiveness.
When you sign up to serve this country in the armed forces you sign up for all the wars our elected leaders may choose to fight, not just the ones you want to fight. We have a military command that is topped by the President as commander-in-chief, and it’s that way for a reason. The President makes our war-time decisions, not soldiers. It’s their duty to carry those decisions out. If the President is wrong he’ll be held accountable by the people of this nation.
I understand the concerns of these troops who are petitioning Congress, but their entrance onto the political stage is a rather crass departure from their role as implementors of our President’s foreign policy in Iraq. They can have their opinions about our foreign policy in Iraq, sure, but these guys are actively trying to undermine our President’s ability to give them an order and that’s wrong.
I wonder if troops signing a petition calling on the President to finish the job in Iraq would get this same sort of attention. I also wonder if anyone considers the fact that the large numbers of people who have and are signing up for or re-enlisting in the military since we invaded Iraq are making their own opinions known about the war.