Producerpundit's Blog

With the long, hard slog headed into its fifth sweltering Iraqi summer, President Bush is still refusing to call for a timetable on U.S. troop withdrawals.

Because of recent progress on the ground, Mr. Bush has authorized the military to go ahead with an already planned troop reduction in July.

Deployment times will be reduced from 15-months to 12-months. But it's hard to take the President seriously about long term troop levels, because every soldier that deploys from here on out will be in a war zone long after the President is out of office.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he sees "no chance" that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will drop to 100,000 by the end of the year.

To that end, I join Jon Soltz, co-founder and chair of votevets.org, in calling on President Bush and John McCain to "put their money where their mouth is" and stop standing in the way of the Webb-Hagel "Dwell Time" Amendment.

According to Senator Webb's website its a "bi-partisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requiring that active-duty troops and units have at least equal time at home as the length of their previous tour overseas. The amendment also sets a minimum 1-to-3 year ratio for National Guard and Reserve members and units."

Soltz rightly points out that if the President is truly serious about relieving the strain on our forces, he'll support the amendment right away.