A parent's plea to Congresswoman Herseth

I'm redacting the names in this as was requested of me, but this is a pretty powerful statement to our Congresswoman from the parent of someone who might be "over there" as was sent to her office.
Dear Congresswoman Herseth,

I would like to encourage you to vote against the supplemental funding bill scheduled for this afternoon or tomorrow. On February 16th I asked you not to support the resolution against the troop surge as proposed by President Bush for the following reasons. South Dakota has lost over 20 of our sons in this war against terrorism and to back down now is an admission of failure. Abraham Lincoln stated in his second Gettysburg Address "...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." I still believe this quote applies to the new government of Iraq, a government that for right or wrong we destroyed and now have now replaced with a democratic government elected by the Iraq people. Let us not have our sons and daughters from across this nation die in vain.

Recently a national columnist rationalized that all foreign occupations are doomed to failure using Russia’s pullout from Afghanistan as one example. While I would not have ever supported Russia’s invasion the pullout clearly left a vacuum that allowed the Taliban to take control creating a safe haven for Al Qaeda to sponsor the attacks on the World Trade Center. To pull out of Iraq, without first creating a stable government that is not a threat to its neighbors and capable of protecting itself, will create another launching pad for terrorism abroad.

As I stated in the previous email my son is a Naval Corpsman currently attending Field Medical Service School at Camp Lejeune North Carolina and after completion will be assigned to a field hospital with the 3rd Marine Regiment in Okinawa Japan. I fully expect that at some point in the near future could be deployed. When or any of our sons or daughters are in harms way they should expect unlimited resources to be made available to insure that they are protected to the fullest extent possible.

I recognize that Speaker Pelosi is asserting Congresses role in the formation of foreign policy. This is an attempt by your leadership to express its will; it is also an opportunity for you as a leader of the “Blue Dog Democrats” to show that you are not blind followers of the Democrat Caucus. I was informed that the Blue Dog Democrats are primarily a fiscal watchdog and was not part of the discussion on foreign policy, as I understand the special appropriation bill it contains over contains Billions of extra spending dollars not related to the Iraq, Afghanistan, or emergency Katrina spending. The wild spending, a desire to hamstring our military and embarrass the President is not reflective of South Dakota or our nation.

Please express your independence and reflect the values of South Dakota and vote in a manner that shows full support for our troops.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hear, Hear! An excellent post!
Anonymous said…
thanks Stephie for undermining our troops on the front lines

enjoy your big fancy wedding party--don't choke on the truffles and escargo while our troops are dying fighting for your freedom
Anonymous said…
Well, SD should expect a side of pork now from our Steffi as payment for her vote on this today. Sad, pathetic actually.

Maybe some people will protest at her wedding?
Anonymous said…
Please, Stephanie, support our troops. See how many more you can waste today.
Anonymous said…
This parent's plea will fall on deaf ears.
Anonymous said…
The letter writer will get back the standard "thank you for taking the time to write me...." letter meaning nothing except that her staff cranked out a computerized letter.

Meanwhile Steffi will get to use the bribery pork as a reason to send her back again at the next election. Can someone find out exactly how much her vote was worth, i.e. what SD was promised? That's quite a wedding present from me (the taxpayer)!
Anonymous said…
I don't believe Iraq will be peaceful until the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds settle their differences among themselves (civil war). But I'm not a military strategist or historian.

If our generals say a troop surge is needed then they should have one more chance to test that theory. But we already have enough American troops. The surge should come from our allies: Brittain, Australia, Germany, France, Canada, Poland, Indonesia, you name it.

We have done our share. It's time for the world's freeloaders to step up to the plate. Terrorism hits home in Spain, Italy, Brittain and other countries too. Their troops and their taxpayers need to shoulder a fair share of the burden in the fight against terrorism, if in fact that is what we call our continued presence in Iraq.
Anonymous said…
Voting no on the supplemental means that our troops are not funded! That's what Dennis Kucinich is proposing!

We need to be careful about what we're asking for...
Anonymous said…
Voting no on this thing is EXACTLY what the far left nutjobs are calling for. As reported on the extreme lefty Democrats.com, the following groups are calling on Democrats to vote no on the bill:

"United for Peace and Justice, Progressive Democrats of America, US Labor Against the War, After Downing Street, Democrats.com, Peace Action, Code Pink, Democracy Rising, True Majority, Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Backbone Campaign, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Voters for Peace"

They want all the funds for the war cut off, which is what will happen if the bill funding the war doesn't pass.
Anonymous said…
You could have counted on her to show her Liberal colors. Maybe the voters will remember this?
Anonymous said…
That letter could have simply read - Stephie, please kiss the deciders ass no matter how incompetent he's proven to be.

PP, maybe while in Brookings Steph could give your kids a hug and remind them that your work as state suckler and arbiter of good and bad republicans is more important than you tucking them in during the week. If you have a few more $29 flights maybe you can do that yourself. BTW, what would you estimate the actual cost of that flight?

I support our troops. I support removing them safely from a civil war in a country whose culture and society few even try to understand.

Bush has grown accustom to admitting mistakes. Such occassional humility is one of his few redeeming qualities. Now is the time for him somehow to try and gracefully address his greatest mistake. I fear his ego and desire to chart history seem to have rendered him incapable of that final reckoning.

You have to kind of feel sorry for W. He's proven himself a man of limited intellect in a circumstance that demands far more than he has to offer. Similar to Midas, he's basically turned everything he's ever touched into a shit sandwich, though I predict history will judge Cheney and Rove more harshly than W.

He speaks of victory in his war on "tear" which forever remains beyond reach. Victory is a myth. In this type of action, there is no watermark for victory. We will never have a treaty or a banner headline "The war is over". There is only a lessening of the disaster, a reduction of the ruin as Haliburton gets fat on the beaches of Dubai.

This war has been wrong from the start. Cheney and Co. carved their deception from our outrage over 911. They skillfully pissed down our back with the spring rains of March 03 and watered a most unfragrant flower.

Patriotic opponents of the action were silenced by skilled propaganda. "WMD's, speading democracy, welcomed as liberators", "Cut -n- runners" "Comfort to the ememy" "With us -r- against us".

Add in "Stay the Course", "Until victory" and the rest of the arrogant "we know what is best" propaganda. This was tempered with a little bible thumping to keep the base attune.

Remember Ol' Rummey, long before he was rightly shitcanned, when he said in response to how long this would last: "six days, six weeks, I doubt six months". Now were in year 5 and how many hundreds of billions later.

So yes I support troops. And I support an end to their maiming and death. I support bringing them back to the "young sod" of america.

FYI - my stepson did three tours in Iraq with the USMC. He doesn't talk about it much although one time he did mention that "it kind of sucks getting shot at". He thankfully made it home safe. However, one of my best friends was not so lucky. He died there, on duty, in the desert. He's buried out by Stugis.
Douglas said…
How long should troops set in a country where they are generally hated. Where they invaded on the basis of a collection of outright lies and deceit?

Herseth should be out on her butt not because she might finally get her head out of it, but because she supported the Bush prememptive boondoggle war to begin with. She and others like her including Daschle and Johnson had plenty of warning that Bush,Inc. was lying and from Sen. Robert Byrd that the powers Bush was seeking was an unconstitutional delegation of powers.

Those who supported the Bush war in Iraq whether Democrat or Republican should be out of congress. They indicated they were incapable of rational decision making or were voting on the basis of expedience.

In either case, they demonstrated they are unsuitable as congress critters.

Parents of children in Iraq should be praying that common sense will overwhelm the flag wavers at last and their children's lives and limbs won't be wasted in a futile ill-begotten war.

Instead of getting angry with a tiny bit of sense finally getting into the equation, people should be furious that Bush,Cheney, Rumsfeld have wasted thousands of lives and billions of dollars already.

There seems to be a complete disconnect between the real world and brain in some pseudo-conservative's heads.
Anonymous said…
Anonymous 11:02 am - Thanks for saying what needed to be said. It was not only good, but showed some intelligence. That is often a rare commodity here.
Anonymous said…
What I see as the height of irony: If Congresswoman Herseth had declared her intention to vote against this admittedly flawed bill, many of the same people bashing her now would be bashing her for “cutting off funding for the troops.” To say otherwise would be the height of hypocrisy…not that some people have a problem with that.
Anonymous said…
11:02---your liberal drivel is annoying, and frankly reeks of "talking points" commonly heard on the nightly news. For every negative view expressed about the situation in Iraq by people who haven't been there, there are multiple accounts from those that have been there that contradict. The problem is that the MSM still have a misguided, sharply slanted view of the situation. I am a strong believer in finding and killing the Islamic extremists, yet also believe that at some point our homeland will be attacked again. What will you and the people who hold your beliefs have to say then??? Probably want to pin it on Bush again, this time for not doing enough. As for Halliburton, there aren't many people in this world that do what they do. In fact, only 1 or 2 other companies worldwide, and known that do it better than them. Doubt that you heard this since it would be counterproductive to what the MSM wants us to believe, but within the last week I read online somewhere that Halliburton posted a loss in their most report on earnings. Facts are facts, and something that those in the "get out of Iraq now" camp don't like. Lastly, thank your stepson for his service to our country. It should be noted though that the function of the military is to protect its citizens, not for them to sit at home nice and cozy collecting a paycheck. We were attacked, on our home soil, and had abolutely no choice but to hit back strongly. Unfortunately, wars are about killing others and avoiding being killed, hence the probability of "getting shot at". War the way the "get out of Iraq" crowd would consist of "sitting at a table and talking things out:. This does not work, nor will it ever.
Anonymous said…
The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
George Orwell, Polemic, May 1946,
Anonymous said…
The BESY way to end a war is to WIN it!

Grow up--quit being so damn selfish.

We either win this war in the Middle East or we fight it here on US soil! Then even the women and children will have to bear arms because any unveiled woman will be fair game--(as Europe is showing us.)

Try looking at what Islam really stands for--there ain't nothin' peaceful about it. It is about killing anyone who doesn't submit.
NO TOLERANCE!

If Herseth isn't smart enough to know that then we need to vote her pretty little "self" outta there.

BYW My SON (not stepson) served proudly with the US Navy and even though he also felt that it really sucked getting shot at--and he wasn't real fond of putting women who had been killed by bombs into body bags--he still totally understands why we need to WIN!

The Iraq people are so grateful for the work that we (the US) has done and things are SOOO much better there now. George W is doing EXACTLY the right thing and we ALL need to get behind him and FINISH this thing and quit belly aching about our comfortable lives!

There isn't ANY solders in Iraq that don't believe that we are doing the right thing--they send those guys HOME. The are one hell of a lot that don't want to go home because they KNOW that they are doing a job to be proud of--even if our press doesn't report it that way.

Who of you are so gullible that you actually believe the press??
Anonymous said…
10:54 pm - Believe the press? Good lord, there are enough soldiers who have returned from over there that can give us the picture - and have.
This supposedly 6-month war is on its way to being a 6-year war with no end in sight.
We can't always go in with force and make everything right - especially when it's a manner of changing an entire culture of people who have fought among themselves for centuries.
To think that we could do that is really being gullible!
Anonymous said…
Rattlesnake - pick up - bite. What more do you need to know about Herseth.

There are 100,000 South Dakota voters that got it right. The rest of you helped her to bite our troops. That letter should be your burden as well.

Hey 11:02 am - Get a clue. There are few around that understand democracy and clearly you are not one of them.

Bruce -

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