Merry Christmas….Signed “The Democrats”

As the AP crows about the Army desertion rate, a rate which is waaaayyyyy lower then it was during Vietnam, we get news that Canada has told a few cowards they can’t stay:

Two U.S. Army deserters who fled to Canada and sought refugee status on
grounds of their opposition to the war in Iraq have lost their bids to have the
Supreme Court of Canada hear their cases.

The court refused Thursday to hear the appeals of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon
Hughey, who were rejected by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board in 2005.

The board ruled they would not be at risk of their lives if they returned to
the United States, nor were they at risk of “cruel and unusual treatment or
punishment.”

Hinzman and Hughey deserted the U.S. Army in 2004 after learning their units
were to be deployed to Iraq to fight in a war they have called immoral and
illegal. The men argue that serving in Iraq would force them to commit crimes
against civilians, and that they would be persecuted if forced to return to the
United States.

Both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal have refused to review
their cases.

And on top of all that we have news that this Iraq funding bill written by Democrats will indeed impact our military much sooner then the Dem’s have said.  You will recall they wrote a bill which authorized the Bush administration to borrow funds from
regular accounts to conduct the Iraq war for several months.  It was another scheme to be able to tell their masters, MoveOn and the sort, that they are trying to bring home our troops (nevermind the fact that the troops are already coming home) while not really hurting the war effort.

Democrats being Democrats, they were wrong:

This fall, the department has been
operating under a continuing resolution. Now that the regular
appropriations bill has been enacted, we are left with no bridge fund
and only our base budget to support normal war operations. Further,
Congress has provided very limited flexibility to deal with this
funding shortage. We can only move a total of $3.7 billion under
general transfer authority, which only amounts to a little over one
week’s worth of war expenses.   

All this leaves the department only with undesirable
options to continue operations in the absence of a bridge fund. The
path we believe is least undesirable fiscally and militarily would
involve the following. The military would cease operations at all Army
bases by mid-February next year. This would result in the furloughing
of about 100,000 government employees and a like number of contractor
employees at Army bases.   

 

These layoffs would have a cascading effect on depots
and procurements. Similar actions would follow for the Marine Corps
about a month later. By law, we’re required to notify certain union
employees 60 days in advance, so appropriate notices would have to go
out starting in mid-December.   

If the Congress does not provide bridge funding this
week on a bill that the president will sign, and given the uncertainty
of future action in December, by the end of this week, as a prudent
manager, I will be obliged to take a series of anticipatory
steps. First, submit an urgent reprogramming request to the
Congress. And second, direct the Army and Marine Corps to develop a
plan to furlough employees, terminate contracts and prepare bases for
reduced operations.   

 

These plans would begin to be implemented in
mid-December. It is a fact of life that even if we received a $50
billion bridge now, and the president signs it, it will fund war
operations only through about the end of February. And so we would be
back in this situation immediately after the Congress reconvenes in
late January. 

So Merry Christmas you civilian workers, and by the way….your fired. 

Thank the Democrats.

Curt

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