Cheney and the Repugs want to blame the lack of

[ashling]

body armor and armored humvees on Kerry.
Perhaps Arnold and his Repug friends should donate their Hummers
to the cause. After all, we have an interest in their Hummers because many of them were bought with a tax credit * gave to his buddies.

What'ya think?

[wryter2000]

1. I heard

I heard Kerry's responsible for the fact that Iraq is so damned hot, too.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Armored Humvees

This is another non-issue. It would be funny if it weren't so sad. I saw that Bush ad about five minutes before seeing a story indicating the generals in Iraq are now saying that the armored Humvees are not doing their job because of inherent design flaws, which is exactly the reason some didn't want to fund the additional expense of armoring them. (I don't know Kerry's precise positions. I've been unable to wade through the campaign rhetoric to find out exactly what he's done/said.)

Now the Pentagon is calling for stepping up production of the Stryker vehicle. No surprise here. It's all about money and getting pet projects funded whether they're worth it or not.

Some pour soul suggest the Vietnam era armored vehicles, which the army has thousands of locked away in mothballs, are far superior to anything that's come out of the military-industrial complex since and should be reactivated and sent to Iraq as a replacement for the Humvees. I've not seen his name mentioned, but I have a guess that whoever suggested this will be receiving orders stationing him somewhere near the arctic circle pretty soon.

[bigtree]

3. We're in the Buck Rodgers era

And troops are bolting extra armour on their vehicles. Remember, Bush sent them, precipitously, into battle without adequate armour. He hit Kerry on this, but, they still don't have the supplies they need out of an $87 billion bill of which only $11 million was for Iraq. Unbelievable!

[zbdent]

4. Simple counter: Who sent them to war without making sure they

were properly equipped?

I heard Mitch Albom this afternoon saying that, of all the HumVEEs over there, only about 2000 of them were armored correctly. The other 90000+ were "normal" humvees. Some of them are being retrofitted.

I love the idea that they're trying to say "Kerry didn't fund them being properly equipped." Well, who sent them there "unprepared" and "ill-equipped" in the first place? Bush and company claims we've been overreacting with the "rush to war" chant.