Now, I’ve hardly been for cutting off funding for the war (actually, I’ve largely been against it for largely being ineffective and a political loser, overall, for democrats). However, that doesn’t excuse the Bush administration from making what amounts to BS threats for cutting funding for bases in the US.
The Army made public a document titled “Running out of OMA [Operations & Maintenance Army]: What the Army will Stop Doing”
This is what it says:
Assumption:
DoD will implement authorities of the Feed and Forage Act providing limited ability to continue some activities
What Stops:
- Army will warm [sic] base operations
- Child care centers, libraries, family and youth activities close [good excuse to screw social services I see]
- Post transportation, and custodial services stop.
- Environmental efforts stop [so this give a good excuse to screw the environment too]
- Training range operations cease [our boys will be unprepared!]
- Critical force protection, safety and health will continue at minimal operations using military labor – gate guards and fire protection.
- Civilian personnel will be furloughed.
- Up to 150,000 employees
- Furlough notices issued 30 to 60 days in advance (depends on local agreements).
- Family Advocacy Support Closes
- Terminate counselor services for returning Soldiers and their Families [one of the more vile threats, I thought]
- Respite care stops
- Media advertising will stop
- Unable to meet treaty obligations (NATO)
Impact:
- Retention may decline
- 5 to 6 brigades are returning from 15 month deployments to find curtailed services and support – a significant morale issue [like being in Iraq isn't demoralizing enough]
- Recruiting may decline
- Advertising stops and recruiting stations may close
- Delays initial entry training for those who have enlisted
- Depot Output Declines
- Orders decline, reset slows
- Operations to strategic readiness limited
- Civilian and contractor support for EUCOM, SOUTHCOM, and USFK stops. [So they cut down contractor support for Europe, South America, and Korea, but not Iraq]
- Army Command Operations reduced
- Civilian and contractor support for ARCENT, NORTHCOM, USARSO, and FORSCOM stops.
- Training Command operations stop.
- Recovery will be measured in years
Of course, what Bush and the Army doesn’t say is that Congress has already passed it’s 2008 Defense appropriations bill which should have already paid for all of this and, since those appropriation bills virtually always allow a certain amount of funds to be transferred as needed, the military could transfer funds to fund the war through Mid-February.
This ultimately is still a dicey situation for democrats, since historically, whenever something stops getting funded, people blame Congress, even if it’s largely due to presidential vetoes. However, if I were Congressional democrats, I’d basically go out and say “look, we already paid for this in the military appropriations bill. Bush and the Republicans shouldn’t make those working at domestic military bases and soldiers state-side suffer because they keep blocking our Iraq funding bills which are trying to end a war that no one but them supports.”
