October 17, 2004, Follow up on the Mutiny on the Tigris: Vehicles Sitting Ducks
We learn more about the 18 or so reservists from the 343rd Quartermasters based in South Carolina who refused to drive their trucks, which had been used in largely "tranquil" southern Iraq, through good old Baghdad. It seems that their trucks were not only not armored, but were also in frequent disrepair.
In some sense, I think the point is that the $87 billion extorted from Congress by the Bush Administration to pay for this adventure (supplemented by what even Dick Cheney admits is another $50 billion or so, and is actually well over $100 billion) was nowhere near sufficient to provide our service personnel with adequately armored vehicles and other measures that our personnel themselves believe necessary for their protection. Hence... what difference does it make if Senators Kerry and Edwards voted against the $87B? Whatever it was about, it sure as hell wasn't about providing safety or protective equipment or even adequate armor to our troops-- and Kerry damned well ought to start calling Bush for demagoguing it that way. (BTW, the talking dog's former running mate Bruce M. suggests that Kerry publicly demand that Mary Cheney herself tell the world if she was offended by Senator Kerry's remarks, if she wishes him to apologize, and if so why... sort of a proactive move by Kerry of the kind he should have made with the Swift Boat Veterans bullshit, lest the Bush campaign theme ("Look over there!") stick among our largely uninformed electorate. But I digress.)
Needless to say, poor morale among our troops in Iraq would seem to be determined more by events like this-- inadequate provisioning by our government, and absurdly dangerous assignments-- than by John Kerry questioning the almost uniformly bad decisions made by his Holy Infallibleness, the President.
Of course, that's just me.
(BTW, Secretary Rumsfeld may not have predicted how many troops we needed in Iraq or how well they needed be equipped, with any degree of accuracy, but he may have a brilliant career ahead of him as a sports tout, as the 'Stros are right in the thick of it.)
Comments
Channel surfing on the AM radio dial I came across a Sean Hannity call-in segment. Like passing a wreck I experienced an uncontrollable urge to gawk for a minute or two. A young, ardent female Bush fan called in to slurp on Sean and bash Kerry. One statement she made starkly defined the mentality of many on the right. Hannity asked her the main reason she preferred Bush over Kerry. She very matter-of-factly stated it was because "Bush liked war and Kerry didn't". Surely a sentiment shared by millions, and reason enough to wish Osama could somehow just target the roughly 1/2 the population voting "R".
Posted by steve duncan at October 18, 2004 10:32 AM
Interesting, isn't it. Remember when Bob Dole called WWII "a Democrat war"; Democrats... the WAR PARTY? Everything is on its head now: war is the health of the state, and its now THE REPUBLICANS who love the idea of a perpetual war, because man will it keep the state healthy!!! And a healthy state, of course, can feed its praetorian allies in the defense, government contracting and oil bid'nesses (and ag subsidies... don't forget the ag subsidies...). That's right folks-- its the REPUBLICANS who are giving us THE BIGGEST GOVERNMENT SPENDING PROGRAMS EVER!!!
Our problem is that as intelligent, rational people, we view self-destruction of our nation and its freedoms as... well, CRAZY SHIT. We'll just have to get over it!!!
Posted by the talking dog at October 18, 2004 3:07 PM
Astros up 3-2. Why can't Rumsfeld have the same ability to assess military matters as well as baseball?
Posted by the talking dog at October 19, 2004 9:26 AM