John Tierney: “Today we are debating the administration's request for an $87 billion bailout occasioned by its failed planning, or…”

“Today we are debating the administration's request for an $87 billion bailout occasioned by its failed planning, or rather, its failure to plan, its lack of planning for postwar Iraq. We are asked to pass this $87 billion bailout despite the fact that the Bush administration has not yet articulated a coherent or workable underlying strategy to accomplish our mission and to bring our troops home safely and soon. It is either unwilling or incapable of doing so. The only way this Congress can ensure for the American people that such a strategy exists and that it has a reasonable chance of success is by using its power of the purse. We are dealing with an administration that has already had over $400 billion in its Department of Defense budget, and it has already received one supplemental appropriation of $63 billion. Yet it fails to explain how and why our forces had tens of thousands of men and women unprotected with the proper Kevlar breast plates, Humvees without proper armor, and rancid water for 80 percent of the troops, or how those conditions continued, even after they knew in June that people were dying and being injured.”