Yesterday I joined Senator Graham, Senator Lieberman, and Representative Conway at the podium of a press conference on the “war supplemental.” Both senators are fighting furiously to make sure that the bill includes the provision that prohibits the release of the photographs allegedly documenting detainee abuse. It was a privilege to participate in the press conference with them. Here is what I said:
I served two tours in Iraq as an officer in a marine infantry battalion. I was a convoy commander in the Haditha area of Al-Anbar province in 2006, so I know from personal experience the kind of impact, both positive and negative, congressional politics can have on the battlefield. I recall two specific incidents. The first was obviously Congressman Murtha’s comments on the so-called Haditha incident. The second was an appropriations bill, similar to this one we are discussing now, that narrowly passed by two votes. These statements damaged troop morale, encouraged our enemies, and unnerved potential friends, and allies among the local population.
Here you have a bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some Democrats oppose it simply because they don’t want to vote for a continuation of these wars, or these battlefronts of the larger war, however you see it, even with President Obama in charge of them. Fine. Other Democrats and Republicans want to vote for the funding, they want to give President Obama the funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It sounds relatively straightforward.
The addition of the $105 billion package of loans to the IMF brings a whole set of extraneous and contentious issues to a bill that is critically important to our efforts against international terrorism. Speaker Pelosi is allowing this unrelated and divisive issue to interfere with the funding of ongoing combat operations. This is irresponsible leadership, and our troops deserve more than that from Congress.
As I told you earlier, I was in Iraq when we went through this before, and the funding bill passed by just two votes. Vets For Freedom fought for responsible leadership in Congress then, and continues to fight today to give the president and the Secretary of Defense the funding they have requested to execute in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some Democrats want the extraneous IMF provision included, but demand the removal of the Lieberman/Graham provision blocking the release of the detainee photographs. Everyone agrees, both Republicans and Democrats, that these photos, if released, will help our enemies and endanger our troops engaged in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations around the world. That’s plain English. Even President Obama agrees and has said so publicly. They will be used to recruit new militant extremists, anger previously neutral individuals and groups, and undermine efforts to bring peace to areas battling Islamic fanaticism.
Senators Lieberman and Graham are doing the responsible thing. As leaders they are taking sensible action on what they know (and everyone knows) to be right. It is time for other representatives to do the same. Remove the IMF loans, protect our troops and our strategic efforts by blocking these photographs, and allow the war supplemental to be what it is supposed to be, not a tool for political maneuvering.
— Gabriel Ledeen is a senior fellow with the Vets For Freedom Educational Institute. He served two tours in al-Anbar, Iraq, as an officer with a Marine infantry battalion.