Unbelievable - YES to surge, NO to body armor

Tonight Mr Bush will give his speech on the troop surge he believes will finally bring victory to Iraq. As we know, the surge itself has already begun, so the speech is, in essence, an after thought; a nice little "F*@# you, naysayers!" from the "president." Tonight, in another one of Mr. Bush's "MOST IMPORTANT SPEECHES EVER", we will hear how we need the extra troops in order to scream "Mission Accomplished" from the rooftops, the same phrase Mr. Bush and the White House already used years ago. So what we see is that despite the fact that virtually no one is behind Mr. Bush on this issue, and although we DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY NOR THE TROOPS TO ACTUALLY HAVE A SURGE (and yes, the troops agree), we're just going to have to suck it up and deal.

The problem? Well, Mr. Bush and his buddies will be sending the troops, but they won't be sending the armor.

Nice, huh?

The thousands of troops that President Bush is expected to order to Iraq will join the fight largely without the protection of the latest armored vehicles that withstand bomb blasts far better than the Humvees in wide use, military officers said.

Vehicles such as the Cougar and the M1117 Armored Security Vehicle have proven ability to save lives, but production started late and relatively small numbers are in use in Iraq, mostly because of money shortages, industry officials said.

More than 1,000 American troops have been killed by roadside bombs since the war began in March 2003. At present there are fewer than 1,000 of the new armored trucks in Iraq. At $500,000 to $700,000 each, they cost more than twice as much as a standard Humvee, but already they are proving their worth.

"They are expensive, but they are going to save lives," said Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, during a recent trip to Iraq, where he reviewed the service's effort to get more of the vehicles.

Absolutely unbelievable.

Let me be perfectly clear; THIS IS NO LONGER A PARTISAN ARGUMENT. By applying logic, it is evident that we DO NOT HAVE the troops, we DO NOT HAVE the money required to continue to fight this war, and we DO NOT HAVE any sense of a plan nor an exit strategy. Mr. Bush DOES NOT HAVE American support for his "plan". And I would be remiss if I did not mention that ultra conservative, Republican Presidential candidate Senator Sam Brownback agrees with me.

“I do not believe that sending more troops to Iraq is the answer,” said Brownback. “Iraq requires a political rather than a military solution. In the last two days, I have met with Prime Minister Maliki, with two deputy presidents and the president of the Kurdish region. I came away from these meetings convinced that the United States should not increase its involvement until Sunnis and Shi'a are more willing to cooperate with each other instead of shooting at each other.”

It appears to me (and the majority of the country) that the dwindling 26% of those people who support Mr. Bush and his actions are simply not as big of a supporter of America and the troops as they claim to be. Shameful.