Senator Tom Harkin posted a blog entry on Iowa’s Bleeding Heartland today to call Iowa progressives to action in response to the recent filibuster of Senator Jim Webb’s troop-protection amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act and renew calls to pressure Senate Republicans and President Bush to change course in Iraq:

“As many in the progressive blogosphere are already aware, the Senate has been debating the National Defense Authorization Act, which will set military policy for the coming fiscal year. My Democratic colleagues and I as well as a few but growing number of Republicans are determined to take this opportunity to demand fairer treatment of our troops and force President Bush to listen to the will of the American people and change course in the war in Iraq.

Yesterday, the first amendment to the defense bill was authored by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. Senator Webb’s troop-protection amendment would have required that active-duty troops receive as much time at home recuperating and retraining as they spend in combat, while giving the president the authority to waive these requirements if additional troops are needed in an emergency.

I was proud to co-sponsor Senator Webb’s legislation because I felt that it was time to bring the systematic abuse of our re-deploying troops to an end. It is simply unacceptable that our troops are being deprived of the time that they need to recover from combat, complete additional training, and spend precious time with their families. Senator Webb’s bill would have gone a long way toward restoring our military’s readiness by giving our brave and courageous service men and women an established amount of time between deployments to protect their mental and physical well-being while providing some stability and predictability for their families.”

To read the rest of Senator Tom Harkin’s blog entry, please click here to visit BleedingHeartland.com