My Pet Goat II: President Sticks To His Story Even As Military Crumbles Around Him

Advance word indicates that President Bush will ignore the stark warning issued by his own defense department by failing to draw down troops in Iraq. Our military is in critical condition. And while Iraq continues to stretch our already broken military, President Bush will stick to his script.

A recent Pentagon health report concluded that prolonging and multiplying deployments will "compound injuries to those who have already served." The current course is shredding the very fiber of our military. The DOD report calls the situation what it is, a "crisis.'' You won't hear that from President Bush tonight.

The overwhelming majority of Army and Marine combat units have already deployed more than once to the war zone, some as many as four times or more. Some as many as six times. You won't hear mention of that brutality tonight, either.

What you will hear tonight is a call for more of the same. The president's call to stay firm in this "long war'' amounts to a potential death sentence for our military. The current course is simply not sustainable. It also happens to be unjust and exploitive of those that are captive to their military contracts.

Sooner or later, and likely sooner, we're going to hit the wall and something will have to change. Simple morality, and sense of decency, demands a change. We cannot continue taking such gross advantage of those who have offered themselves in service to our country.

The time for dithering is over. On 9/11, while reading My Pet Goat to a group of children, it took the president several minutes to put down his book after learning that America was under attack -- he might as well be doing the same today. Our military is breaking and he is sticking to his fictional story.

This is not sustainable. Our military cannot take any more of this. If we don't deal with it now, there won't be anyone willing to fight for us tomorrow.