By National Commander Paul A. Morin
Our troops need your help and they need your help now!
When it comes to funding our troops, we have no time to waste. The clock is literally ticking for our troops in the field.
That’s why I'm inviting every member of The American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary and Sons of The American Legion to contact their congressmen and senators to demand that they pass a clean supplemental appropriations bill: one that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal.
In both the House and the Senate, majorities have passed supplemental appropriation bills that set deadlines for withdrawal from Iraq and provide billions of dollars for pork barrel projects.
As the president promised in his speech at American Legion Post 177, in Fairfax, Virginia, recently, he will veto the appropriations bill containing provisions for a “timetable for withdrawal.” If Congress fails to pass a bill he can sign by mid-April, then funding for the troops will be delayed and they will face the following consequences:
- Our military leaders will need to take money from military personnel accounts, weapons and communications systems in order to fund programs that protect our soldiers and Marines from improvised explosive devices and send hundreds of mine-resistant vehicles to our troops on the front lines.
- The Army will be forced to consider cutting back on equipment repair and quality of life initiatives for our Guard and Reserve forces.
- The Army will also be forced to consider curtailing some training for Guard and Reserve units here at home, reducing their readiness, and could delay their availability to mobilize for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The Army will be forced to consider slowing or even freezing funding for its depots, where the equipment our troops depend on is repaired. They will have to consider delaying or curtailing the training of some active duty forces, reducing the availability of those forces to deploy overseas.
- The Army may also have to delay the formation of new brigade combat teams, which would prevent us from getting those troops into the pool of forces that are available to deploy.
- In a recent letter to Congress, the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Pete Schoomaker, warned, "Without approval of the supplemental funds in April, we will be forced to take increasingly draconian measures, which will impact Army readiness and impose hardships on our soldiers and their families."
The United States Senate is back from its spring recess. The House will return next week. When it comes to funding our troops, we have no time to waste. It's time for them to get the job done.
The men and women of the armed forces in the theater of operation are dependent on this emergency funding to sustain and achieve their military missions.
I'm urging every member of The American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary and Sons of The American Legion to contact their congressmen and senators to demand passage of a clean bill: one that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal.
Here is what you need to do.
Go to http://capwiz.com/legion/home/ to see where your congressmen and senators stand on the supplemental appropriations that sets an timeline for withdrawing our troops. Call and email them. Tell them you expect Congress to pass a clean war-funding bill now … without the timelines and without the pork.
I am asking all Department adjutants, Auxiliary presidents and SAL adjutants to give this Call to Action the widest dissemination possible. Do it today, do it now, and do it for the troops.
Comments (1)
What a great story. Go get'em legionairs
Posted by American Boy | 04/12/07 7:38 PM |