FOR MANY OF OUR NEIGHBORS SOMETHING BIGGER THAN ANNA NICOLE SMITH'S BABY'S PATERNITY CASE JUST HAPPENED-- BUSH REGIME ESCALATION IS ESCALATING

For thousands of families across America the big news yesterday wasn't about Imus getting booted off MSNBC or about the Duke lacrosse players, the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith's baby, the unravelling and implosion of John McCain's presidential campaign, the Bush Regime's version of Nixon's 18 minute gap scandal, or even the story of the British sailor who sold his tale for £100,000. No, it was about Defense Secretary Robert Gates announcing longer tours for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. "All active-duty Army troops now in Iraq or Afghanistan or headed to either country will serve 15-month tours of duty, up from the usual 12-month tours, effective immediately, the Pentagon announced today... Gates dismissed any suggestion that the change is a sign that the American military is 'broken,' as one questioner put it, by having to fight two wars for several years and, in recent months, by the 'surge' of more than 20,000 additional combat troops for Baghdad operations."


For the families of these men and women the news came at them like a herd of elephants. According to today's Washington Post "The decision-- coming three months after President Bush put forth his new security plan for Iraq, including the deployment of at least 28,000 additional troops there-- reflects the reality that the new strategy is unfeasible without introducing longer Army tours. The across-the-board extension will affect more than 100,000 active-duty soldiers and will result in the longest combat tours for the Army since World War II. It will also mandate for the first time that active-duty soldiers spend more time at war than at home."

Speaker Pelosi called the move unacceptable. She said the Regime's decision "just underscores the fact that the burden of the war in Iraq has fallen upon our troops and their families. The Bush Administration has failed to create a plan to fully equip and train our troops, bring them home safely and soon, and provide our veterans with the quality care they deserve. Extending the tours of all active-duty Army personnel is an unacceptable price for our troops and their families to pay. Democrats have offered a new direction in Iraq – one that would bring our troops home safely and soon. We encourage President Bush to sit down with us to find a solution to bring this war to an end."

It's odd that just yesterday Bush was ranting and raving and trying to castigate Democrats in a way that indicates he may have been out of the loop on this decision. "The bottom line is this: Congress's failure to fund our troops will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines. Others could see their loved ones headed back to war sooner than anticipated. This is unacceptable. It's unacceptable to me, it's unacceptable to our veterans, it's unacceptable to our military families, and it's unacceptable to many in this country." Yeah, it sure is. Don't do it. Harry Reid also asked Bush to sit down with congressional leaders and work together to bring the occupation of Iraq to a quick and reasonable conclusion.

Today's news that active-duty troops' tours in Iraq will be extended to 15 months is another in a long line of examples of how the President's Iraq policies are making us less secure. A bipartisan majority of Congress sees it, the American people see it and military experts see it.

It is time for the President to work with Congress to change course in Iraq. Congress will send President Bush a bill that gives our troops the resources they need and a strategy in Iraq worthy of their sacrifices. If the President vetoes this bill he will have delayed funding for troops and kept in place a strategy that neither our troops nor the American people can afford any longer.

Two people I met in the course of last fall's congressional campaign, Jan and Charlie Brown, are two Americans among the thousands of families who got that bad news yesterday. Charlie ran a gallant and heroic campaign against arch-Republicrook and warmonger John Doolittle (CA-04), managing to hold the entrenched incumbent down to under 50% of the vote. I am confident that Charlie will take him on again next year-- and beat him. [You can help make that a reality by the way.] Anyway, Charlie just put up a heartfelt, well-reasoned and passionate diary at Daily Kos that I would like to recommend everyone read.