it's one thing for you and i to read and understand

this. it's a totally different thing for king george and his court to read AND UNDERSTAND THIS. our congress and our senate have been sitting on their effing fat asses for more than five years. this war is wrong and it has been from day one. yet the shite keeps going on and on and on. more reports, more testimony more of this and that. while the people of iraq are killing themselves (and us). they don't have water and electricity and education. their country is in ruins and our troops are in ruins (as well as their families). when is someone going to say ENOUGH?
Exhausted, Overextended Troops Ready to 'Unravel'
By Bobby Muller, AlterNet.
A central theme of General David Petraeus' tour of Capitol Hill are his pleas for patience with the U.S. war in Iraq. He called for a "pause" against the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, citing the need to consolidate the gains that have been achieved over the past few months.
The crushing burden our military already endures ought to give serious pause to Members of Congress. The health of our military must be a top priority because current deployment rates are grinding up our military men and women, tearing at the bonds of families, eroding military readiness -- and leaving us less secure at home.
It is commonly known that a very small percentage of the American population has borne a disproportionate burden of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What is less commonly understood is that our Army's Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) -- a subset of this already small population -- have been repeatedly sent to the frontlines, enduring high-intensity combat for extended periods with inadequate time at home between tours. This has always been a problem during America's wars, but at least in previous conflicts the draft provided a pool of manpower resources that could be dipped into to provide rest for those who bore the greatest burden. That is no longer true.
Some Army BCTs have deployed four times since Sept. 11, 2001. Members of the 10th Mountain Division, one of the most heavily used in Iraq and Afghanistan, had a mere six months of dwell time between their second and third deployments since Sept. 11. Dozens of soldiers based at Fort Carson, Colorado, were recently sent back to Iraq despite having medical conditions that should have made them ineligible for continued deployments.........