| Since getting back from Iraq, I have spoken out about the war – the unjust, unnecessary, and unwinnable war in Iraq. There I said it – unwinnable. We had a small window of opportunity to affect change and win the peace in Iraq after we invaded, and we squandered it. Just like our opportunity to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden in the hills of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, we lost the momentum and never lived up to our pre-war promises and now the Iraqi populace and the world is calling our bluff.
The war with Iraq was sold to the American people under the guise that Saddam Hussein was threatening the United States, harboring terrorists linked to the attacks of 9-11, and in the possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction. None of this was true, yet we still continue to sell the war with Iraq to the American people as a necessary evil. How many times have you heard “We need to fight them over there, rather then fight them here in America” coming out of the Republican Party leadership?
I am not writing this to highlight the anniversary of the war with Iraq, but rather to highlight my opponent’s lack of compassion and interest in the members of our Armed Forces and veterans in general. I understand voting the party line and supporting the President if you are a Republican, but Joe Barton, has done nothing to “support the troops” right here in District 6. He made his photo op trip to Kuwait (not Iraq) a few years back and recently attended a ceremony for a Silver Star recipient, but that doesn’t mean he is “supporting the troops.”
This is the same guy that voted for the war and left our troops out to dry and exposed without the proper protection – body armor, up-armored HMMWVs, and basic equipment for our National Guard and Reserve soldiers from Texas. I know because I was one of these soldiers. I can go on for days about how my unit was under funded, ill-trained, and not properly equipped before deploying to Iraq.
The reason I bring up Iraq to prove this point is because of his lack of focus on veterans during his “re-election” campaign. There are approximately 72,000 veterans (13%) in District 6 and Joe Barton does not even devote space on his website to address Veterans issues. We are 3 years after the invasion of Iraq, and 5 years after waging war in Afghanistan, but Joe Barton’s websitehas not changed at all. The same issues that he “campaigned” on in 2000 are still the same issues he has posted today in 2006. Bottom line, Barton is out of touch with reality and his district.
Barton is still living in that “pre 9-11” world.
As a Representative from one of the largest states in the Nation and one of the leading contributors of troops to the War on Terror, he would at least have something on his website for Veterans.
After 20 years in Congress, he should have figured this out. This illustrates how out of touch with this issue and the security of the United States he is because he is more concerned with writing legislation that favors big oil and communication companies.
It is imperative that we re-deploy our troops to secure our ports and our borders instead of trying shove Democracy down the throat of a country that doesn’t want it. Hurricane Katrina illustrated the need for our National Guard to be here at home, not fighting insurgents and securing borders in Iraq.
This is the real way to support our troops – by getting them out of a country where we were never invited and out of the midst of a civil war.
Joe Barton...out of touch with our troops. |
