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American politicians will chase away Coalition allies, says analyst

An Australian defense analyst asserts that American politicians are sending the wrong message to Coalition allies when they vote to undermine President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq. Consequently, he wonders if America has the "right stuff" to continue and complete the war on terror.



As the House of Representatives voted on a non-binding resolution opposing the Iraq deployments, Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha began to talk about a proposal that would put restrictions on any future deployments to Iraq or Iran. Murtha, who chairs the House panel that oversees military spending, says the U.S. lacks the capability to sustain a possible war with Iran.

Greg Copley, president of the International Strategic Studies Association, says Murtha and other political opponents of the president's proposal are sending the wrong signal to Coalition allies. "The U.S. is going to lose allies [if this continues]," he says. "And why should they keep going out on a limb if they think that their sacrifice of lives and capital are going to be ignored or even trashed by U.S. politicians?"

The ISSA president takes issue with those who blame the president for loss of U.S. allies in the war on terror. "It's not President Bush who's losing allies to the United States," he contends; "it's the U.S. political opponents of the president who are denigrating the contributions and value of the world's fight to create a stable political environment."

Copley suggests that Murtha read about what happened to the French Army in World War I. "French casualties in one battle were 300,000 dead," he notes. "Now, 3,000 [Americans] dead in Iraq -- and we're complaining that this is too high a price to pay?" Copley says it makes him wonder if the U.S. has the "right stuff" to win the war on terror.