Commentary by someone else

[HawkerHurricane]

If a soldier gets shot in the head by a sniper while standing a post, that’s a combat risk. It’s unavoidable. It’s part of the deal that we soldiers accepted when we signed on the line. If a soldier dies in an unarmored vehicle when a couple thousand bucks of sheet metal and bodywork would have prevented it-that’s murder. Not by the insurgents. By his own country. The Bush administration is
responsible for every dead soldier whose death could have been prevented by proper equipment. We’re not talking about hot food or fresh uniforms; we’re talking about life and death.

In WWII production of civilian goods was curtailed to provide our troops with war material. In Bushworld we send our troops out naked, because ‘you go to war with the army you’ve got.’ A ‘war president’ would shift civilian production to produce the things his troops needed to have the best chance of returning alive and healthy to their families after serving their country. A ‘war president’
wouldn’t issue excuses about why his troops don’t have armor…he’d go get it if he had to beg, borrow or steal. Today we pump out SUVs by the thousands and our soldiers go without.

We have unlimited funds for missile systems that don’t work. We’ve got new attack fighters in the works. We’ve got the money in the defense budget, just not for our troops. We built over sixty aircraft carriers in five years for WWII, but we can only armor a few hundred HMMVs a month. We are the most powerful economic engine the world has ever known and this is the best we can do? Or is that we talk about suporting our troops-so long as it's convenient? And tax neutral?

Our soldiers are heroes. Every damn one of them. The best America has to offer. And whether or not you believe in the war (I don’t), when you put them in the field you owe them the support they need. They are not numbers. They are people. For the cost of one attack fighter we could armor every vehichle in Iraq in a month. It's just manpower and steel.

I guess this is what you get from an administration headed by a man who not only dodged combat in his own war, but failed to show the integrity to fulfill the commitment that he made in order to avoid that combat. I guess this is what you get when your Vice President tells us that he ‘had other priorities’ in the sixties and didn’t show up either. Maybe if either one of them had ever heard a shot fired in anger or had to put their butts on the line for their tough guy talk, maybe they’d understand what it feels like to drive naked though Indian Country because they were sent to war “with the army they got.”

To all those bush supporters with your assinine yellow ribbons and 'we support our troops' window stickers-you sicken me. You want to support our troops?..get on the freaking phone to the white house and tell our chicken hawk in chief that this situation is unacceptable. That saving our soldier's lives is more important than whatever else he's doing today. That's supporting our troops.

[babylonsister]

1. Awesome! Who wrote this? Can I copy for that one

obnoxious freeper I communicate with?

[HawkerHurricane]

4. I don't know

It was posted anon on another message board, but he gave permission to repeat it.
So do it. Get it around the net.

[babylonsister]

8. Will do-thanks!

[knowbody0]

2. kin of the dead due to insuficient armor should rage united and

sue like no one's ever sued before.

[Mr_Spock]

3. Amen - excellent.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[prairierose]

5. Wonderful commentary. thanks for posting n/t

[classof56]

6. Excellent! I just printed this off--would love to know who authored it.

I've got a file: "God, how could Americans have been so stupid as to vote for Bush?" This will go in that. Thanks for sharing.

Tired Old Cynic

[karlrschneider]

7. Good catch, Hawk. I know you're too young to remember WWII (how many

around still do?) - i was a child myself but I can remember 'rationing'.
The 'gas coupons', my mom would "repair" old bed sheets by cutting them down the middle and sewing the sides together...but of course that was about as close as one get to a 'legitimate' war...

[Mr_Spock]

9. Kick!

Dumbya back to hell.