I’m getting tired of Bush supporters constantly pointing out the votes Kerry and Edwards cast against the $87 billion bill to reconstruct and re-supply American troops in Iraq as an indication of their poor judgment and refusal to “support the troops.” These people seem to knowingly overlook the fact that it was the president, not Kerry or Edwards, whose terribly poor judgment sent our troops into Iraq despite not being fully equipped with the
proper armor and equipment.
These people also tend to knowingly overlook the un-American clauses in this bill that gave out “no bid” contracts to Halliburton, a company under investigation by the securities and exchange committee for illegal accounting practices, not to mention the vice president’s ties to the company as its former CEO. And finally, these people always seem to knowingly overlook the fact that Kerry proposed the exact same bill that would have made Halliburton compete for the rebuilding contracts as opposed to
having them suspiciously bestowed upon them by the administration.
The bottom line is that the $87 billion bill the administration proposed could have and should have been drastically improved, and the votes that Kerry and Edwards cast against it are an indication of that. It’s too bad that people will immediately seize upon this vote as some sort of indication of poor judgment without taking the time to delve a little deeper in order to figure out why they voted the way they did.
Nathan O’Donnell
Eugene