LTE: May 31, 2007

Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen needs to re-examine his definition of courage before applying the word to Delaware Senator Joe Biden, "Biden's vote for war funding a profile in courage," May 31,2007 .

Biden's stated reason for siding with the president and Congressional Republicans is that he wants to give our troops all the tools they need to do their job in Iraq, a sentiment often echoed by our own Congressman Leonard Boswell. Yet does the good senator think we, the voters, are so naive as to think our soldiers' job in Iraq is to hand out chocolates and flowers, and build hospitals and schools? The job of our troops in Iraq, quoting Chief Warrant Officer Jim Funk, as profiled by John Carlson, is to "...bust and kill the enemy[.]"

The unstated reason Biden and a majority of Democrats in the Senate and the US House voted for the Iraq ward funding bill is, the Defense Department and defense contractors do business in every state and congressional district in the country. The opportunity to bring home the pork while getting hefty campaign contributions from DoD contractors is simply too good to pass up.

It did not take much backbone for the Democratic presidential candidate to cast his vote with the 80-vote majority of U.S. Senators who handed President George Bush a $100 billion check to continue the occupation of Iraq, at least until September of this year. But do not expect any change then, as White House spokesman Tony Snow, to little press notice on May 30, said President Bush envisions a U.S. presence in Iraq similar to that of South Korea, where American troops have been stationed for over fifty years and counting.