Do As I Say, Not As I Said

by digby

We keep hearing a lot about how wrong it is for the Democrats in congress to have the temerity to stop giving the president a blank check. Over and over again the Republicans wail about how the Dems want to hurt the troops by refusing to fund this escalation.

Here’s GOP Representative Sam Johnson last week:

“I really want to know: If Democrats insist that they are supporting our troops, then why wouldn’t they let me introduce my measure that mandates that Congress would support and fully fund the men and women in uniform?

“I’m positive that Democrats will attempt to cut funding as soon as the spending bills come up this spring…and fear what that means for our troops on the ground.

[…]

“What is the democrats’ plan to move forward and win? They don’t have one! Just 36 hours of political grandstanding, non-binding resolutions, and petty posturing. They are not proposing solutions. They are not even encouraging new ideas – in fact – they stopped them, like when they squashed my amendment.

“Many hope that the troop surge is the beginning of the end. We all should want that if it gets the job done. Yet, Democrats are just saying no.

“You know, the time will come when they can put the money behind these non-binding resolutions….. and you better believe that we’ll be watching them …and calling them on those funding cuts loud and clear.

“America needs to know: cutting funds for our troops in harm’s way is not a remedy – it’s a ruse.”

He had more to say in his gripping closing statement:

“We POWs were still in Vietnam when Washington cut the funding for Vietnam. I know what it does to morale and mission success. Words can not fully describe the horrendous damage of the anti-American efforts against the war back home to the guys on the ground.”

“Our captors would blare nasty recordings over the loud speaker of Americans protesting back home…tales of Americans spitting on Vietnam veterans when they came home… and worse.

“We must never, ever let that happen again.

“The pain inflicted by your country’s indifference is tenfold that inflicted by your ruthless captors.

“Our troops – and their families – want, need and deserve the full support of the country – and the Congress. Moms and dads watching the news need to know that the Congress will not leave their sons and daughters in harm’s way without support.

[…]

“Debating non-binding resolutions aimed at earning political points only destroys morale, stymies success, and emboldens the enemy.

“The grim reality is that this House measure is the first step to cutting funding of the troops…Just ask John Murtha about his ‘slow-bleed’ plan that hamstrings our troops in harm’s way.

“Now it’s time to stand up for my friends who did not make it home – and those who fought and died in Iraq – so I can keep my promise that when we got home we would quit griping about the war and do something positive about it…and we must not allow this Congress to leave these troops like the Congress left us.

“Today, let my body serve as a brutal reminder that we must not repeat the mistakes of the past… instead learn from them.

“We must not cut funding for our troops. We must stick by them. We must support them all the way…To our troops we must remain…always faithful.

How do you argue with a man like that?

Well, I suppose you could start with this:

UNITED STATES TROOP DEPLOYMENTS IN BOSNIA (House of Representatives – December 13, 1995)

Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas:

Mr. Speaker, this is not about peace and war; it is about war. That is what is going on over there, and they are not going to stop fighting just because we go in there.

I wholeheartedly support withholding funds from President Clinton’s Bosnia mission. Although it is a drastic step and ties the President’s hands, I do not feel like we have any other choice. The President has tied our hands, gone against the wishes of the American people, and this is the last best way I know how to show my respect for our American servicemen and women. They are helpless, following orders. But we, we
are in a position to stop this terrible mistake before it happens.

I know how those soldiers are feeling. I was in the military for 29 years, and I recognize that we used to say `Let’s go to war. Let’s go fight that war, it is the only one we have got.’ And that is what some of them are doing. However, I was told by Senator Hutchison that the guys down in Fort Hood did not say that. They said `Why are we going there? Can’t you stop us?’ She said she would try.

Thirty years ago when I was sent to Vietnam in a similar situation, Vietnam started out as a peace type mission, no defined goal, no exit strategy, no idea whose side we were on, and a created incident to gain support of the Congress. A peacekeeping mission? Come on. Does this not sound just like a carbon copy? I think it is.

What is going to happen when our guys get over there, and if the rules of engagement apply, and they get shot at, and we start shooting back, what are their people going to say when we start killing them, killing Bosnians, killing Croatians, killing Serbs? We will do it, and we will get chastised for it.

Let me just ask one more thing for the guys over here voting against it: What are you going to do when one of our women soldiers get captured?

These principled conservatives really get you coming and going don’t they?

It seems that the Republicans have forgotten the debate over troop funding in 1995. Too bad they are on record:

As thousands of U.S. soldiers packed for a winter in Bosnia, the Senate Wednesday debated President Clinton’s plan to send those troops to enforce peace between ancient enemies. House Republicans vented their opposition.

In a 108-64 vote Wednesday, House Republicans backed a measure that would cut off funding for the mission. Although House leaders gave the funding cutoff no chance of passing later Wednesday, the caucus action clearly reflected stiff opposition.

[…]

The measure drafted by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was given the best chance of winning Senate approval Wednesday -shortly before the president departs for Paris and the signing of the Bosnian peace agreement Thursday.

House backing appeared less certain, particularly after Republicans endorsed the measure by Rep. Bob Dornan of California, which would cut off money for the operation.

“I’m going to be in Tuzla on Christmas with the troops,” Dornan said, referring to the U.S. headquarters in Bosnia. “Please don’t question Bob Dornan’s support for the troops.”

[…]

The Senate debated three options: Cut off funding, a proposal given little chance of passing; oppose Clinton’s decision to send troops but support the soldiers themselves, expected to gain Republican support; or permit Clinton to send troops but impose restrictions on the mission, also considered likely to pass…”I think the American people are solidly behind our effort to stop the deployment, even though it’s almost too late now,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)

To be fair, the debate was all over the place, although the Dems were solidly behind Clinton. (The public was extremely skeptical that the mission could work or that the US would not take casualties. As it turned out, there were none, either there or in the Kosovo war that came later and which many Republicans also opposed.)

Never the less, it’s quite astonishing to see how casually Republicans discussed cutting off funding and how they offered legislation to do it — and all the other things they now purport are outrageous betrayals of the military. There were troops on the ground then too — Dornan was headed out to Tuszla to visit them. (They knew, of course, that they wouldn’t be baited by rightwing character assassins for doing so, so they do have freedom that Democrats don’t have.)

But, still, it was only twelve years ago that our big POW hero Sam Johnson held an entirely different position on defunding the troops than he has now. You’d think that someone would have noticed the inconsistency.

I have to wonder just how many times Republicans get to be totally wrong on national security before the American people (certainly the press) catch on to the fact that they have never had the faintest clue?

H/T to JG.