Why do Republicans hate our troops? I don’t understand their reasoning in blocking this legislation. It’s like shooting themselves in the foot….again. How stupid can they be?

Legislation that would have required longer troop rests between combat deployments fell today to a Republican filibuster, but GOP cracks on President Bush’s war policies continued to widen, with two more Republican senators signing on to binding troop withdrawal dates.

The Senate voted 56-41 to cut off debate on an amendment to the annual defense policy bill by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) that would have mandated that troops be granted home leave between deployments of at least as long as their previous combat tours. Stretched National Guard and Reserve units would have been granted three-year breaks between assignments.

The vote was short of the 60 needed to break the filibuster, but it attracted seven Republican votes, a surprising number considering a similar proposal in the House this spring had been denounced as a “slow bleed strategy.”

More at the Washington Post