Democrats, Military Fault Bush for Old Weapons

[sabra]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-warcosts28jul28,0,693656.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Democrats, Military Fault Bush for Old Weapons

Washington -- The war on terrorism has already cost nearly two-thirds as much as the Vietnam War. But congressional Democrats, supported by top Army brass, complain that the Bush administration is not spending enough to repair or replace weapons systems used in combat.

The top Democrats on the House Armed Services and Appropriations committees have held news conferences in the last two days, urging the administration to submit an emergency request for $17 billion for this year alone -- an amount suggested by Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff.

"Our current readiness level puts us at strategic risk," Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said Thursday. "It risks emboldening our enemies, and it threatens the security of this nation."

President Bush has said repeatedly that the U.S. public is better off if American troops are battling terrorists overseas than if the terrorists are bringing the war to America. But with the congressional midterm elections less than four months away, Democrats have made no secret that they want to use military readiness to help turn the issue in their favor.

[Monkeyman]

1. 90% NG of IL destoryed no replacement yet

[Cha]

2. So where's our money

goin'? bush better not be spending our Social Security money on bombs!

[theanarch]

3. well, look at the bright side:

a US military with seriously degraded equipment (and no replacements in sight) won't be liberating the oil in Muslim countries from their own people/Hezbollah/Hamas/fill-in-the-blank any time soon, now will they? I can just see Boy George ordering his army (in his mind, a million plastic GI Joe action-figures/super-heroes, with full armor and air support by Mattel) to invade Syria or Iran, and every readiness report from every unit involved comes back: "With what, asshole?" I'd pay a whole nickel to see the faith-based bubble of neo-con delusion burst. And if that included Junior's look of stupified amazement, make it a dime.

[dionysus]

4. "air support by Mattell"

THAT.. IS.. PRICELESS...

Imagine the ad...

"War Cost: approaching 1 trillion"
"Deaths: over 2500"
"Air Support from Mattell... PRICELESS"
"for the rest there's BastardCard TM"

[krispos42]

5. With Barbies in the role of the USO...

But where do we put the Trolls?

And if you're going to watch his faith bubble implode, you're gonna need safety glasses and earplugs. After relocating to Iceland. It's a pretty thick bubble and the cosmic consequences could be impressive!

I personally think his faith-based bubble will implode so hard and fast it will form a quantum black hole, crushing him to a speck of pure neutronium which then falls to the molten core of the Earth and stays there at the origin of Earth's gravity.

[theanarch]

6. thanks for the safety tip...

...but i have a cast-iron stomach for these sorts of things, and prefer to experience it in the raw, as it were.