Responding to criticism to his vote on Friday against the supplemental appropriations bill Mr. McHugh said,

“It took away from local commanders on the field, who are in the heat of battle, really the flexibility to make the decisions that they need to make. It’s micro managing from Washington the kind of debacle we got ourselves into in Vietnam”


The bill specifically funds an orderly and safe withdrawal from Iraq after March 1, 2008:

(d) … the Secretary of Defense shall commence the redeployment of the Armed Forces from Iraq not later than March 1, 2008, and complete such redeployment within 180 days.

(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this or any other Act are immediately available for obligation and expenditure to plan and execute a safe and orderly redeployment of the Armed Forces from Iraq, as specified in subsections (c) and (d).

It says nothing about the “heat of battle” or “micromanaging” commanders in the field. It directs the Secretary of Defense to withdraw the troops. Directions to and funding of the activities of the Secretary of Defense do not constitute “micromanaging” but rather funding and broad policy direction.

In fact the Act explicitly states:

It is the sense of Congress that, because the commanders of the United States Armed Forces in Iraq have the training, experience, and first-hand knowledge of the situation on the ground–

(1) the commanders should be allowed to conduct the war and manage the movements of the troops; and

(2) Congress should remain focused on executing its oversight role.

What could be more clear. How can this be characterized as interfering with field commanders?

The Act further states that:

Congress will fully support the needs of members of the Armed Forces who the Commander in Chief has deployed in harm’s way in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, and their families.

and also acknowledges the President’s and the Congress’s role:

(a) It is the sense of Congress that Congress acknowledges the President as the Commander in Chief, and that role is granted solely to the President by article II, section 2, of the United States Constitution.

(b) It is further the sense of Congress that Congress has the power solely to declare war under article I, section 8, clause 11, of the United States Constitution.

Mr. McHugh (”I voted for what?!”) has been noted before to be unaware and inattentive of what a bill contains. Brigadier General W. Ray Johnson, of the North Carolina National Guard, noted this inattentiveness in a letter to The Hill regarding a provision that stripped National Guard Troops of reimbursement for military long distance courses.

The Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Enumerating the Powers of Congress is also very clear that the congress shall have the power to:

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

So the bill is both constitutionally and operationally sound. It does not insert Congress into the field but rather funds and makes broad policy regarding War and Rules of Capture. Whether the President likes it or not, Congress has the power of the purse.

To be charitable, maybe our congressman just didn’t read the bill that he voted against and was mistaken in his characterization above. Maybe he didn’t know that it also contained provisions for our farmers, military housing, hurricane disaster and wounded veterans.

If he had read it and did know what he was voting down, then his characterization above is an outright deception. Take your pick: deception or inattentiveness.

The “debacle” of Vietnam was just such a culmination of lies and deceit starting from the Gulf of Tonkin Incident to the body counts as evidence of our “winning.”

Hear Walter Cronkite (need RealPlayer - make sure to get the free one at the top right hand corner of the page) narrate the LBJ-McNamara White House tapes setting up the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. It is a twelve minute broadcast. Long – but compelling. The August 2, 2004 NPR webpage is here.