Democrats playing games with U.S. soldiers

Democrats playing games with U.S. soldiers – again?
Today's toying with war budget reminiscent of suppressing military vote in 2000

As Democrats in control of Congress hold U.S. troop funding hostage to a controversial timetable for withdrawal – which critics equate with surrender – and as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announces the Iraq war is 'lost' even in the midst of the fighting, Republicans are accusing Democrats of toying with and endangering America's armed forces for political advantage.

"What a terrible message for our troops fighting this very minute," Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, said on the House floor Thursday night of Reid's comments. "Instead of a roadmap to success, we are being asked to support a plan for defeat. We're being asked to announce to our enemies a date for surrender."

And Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and a presidential hopeful, said Reid should be held responsible for the deaths of all American soldiers in Iraq, calling his comments "reckless" and "brash."

Use of the U.S. military as pawns in a power game is not new, however. During the 2000 election cycle, which turned out to be one of the most controversial presidential races in American history, perhaps the most explosive aspect was the alleged suppression of the military vote.

Although the reasons for it were much debated, what is beyond debate is that thousands of military personnel serving America domestically and abroad did not get to vote for their next commander-in-chief during that election.

In that contest between then-Gov. George W. Bush and then-Vice President Al Gore, it was widely believed that those in the U.S. military were more likely to vote Republican.

In a remarkable 100-page WND book titled "Election 2000: How the Military Vote was Suppressed," reporter Jon E. Dougherty presents the most comprehensive account of the problems, political machinations and subversion of military votes unearthed during Election 2000.

Even before the Nov. 7 election, Dougherty was documenting cases where military voters living at bases in the U.S., and especially abroad, were being denied their voting franchise.

Then the story heated up rapidly. From the early Pentagon admissions of absentee-ballot delivery problems to subsequent angry denials; from a Florida Democrat lawyer's 5-page memo on how to disqualify military ballots to the capricious disqualification of hundreds of legal military votes in that state's razor-close race; from multiple lawsuits over absentee ballots to judges chastising canvassing boards for denying soldiers their right to vote; WorldNetDaily was there through it all. And topping it off are the many voices – some from battleships halfway around the world – of the men and women in America's armed forces who contacted WorldNetDaily, crying out for the right to exercise the most basic American right of all – the right to vote.