In trying to make the case that the Democrats strategy for surrender is more compassionate than Bush's strategy for victory, Senator Harry Reid said
"But there is still a chance to change course and we must change course. The partisans who launched attacks on my comments are the same ones who continue to support a failed strategy that hurts our troops. Is this Administration supporting the troops when it sends our brave men and women into battle without the necessary body armor, with vehicles that are not properly armored?
But by playing politics with the Emergency Appropriations bill, Senator Reid, Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership are doing exactly what they accuse the President.
The new Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles have proved their worth. In one case a vehicle was hit multiple times by enemy fire and bomb blasts with no casualties suffered by the occupants. But buying more of these and shipping them to the front is being delayed because Democrats want to withold funds.
...efforts to buy thousands more carriers - each costing about $1 million - could be delayed if the White House and Congress do not resolve their deadlock over a $124.2 billion war spending bill.
About $3 billion for the vehicles is tied up in the legislation. The spending plan has stalled because of a dispute over provisions that would set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
At a hearing last month, lawmakers urged the Army to get more of the carriers to the battlefront as quickly as possible. The vehicles, with their unique V-shaped hull that deflects blasts outward and away from passengers, are considered lifesavers against the No. 1 killer in Iraq - roadside bombs.
Military leaders say the carriers have reduced roadside bomb casualties in Iraq by as much as two-thirds....
Right now, there are at least 1,100 of the armored carriers on the battlefront in Iraq, including the 100 or so that rumble through Anbar province carrying troops and clearing roads of explosives.
The Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations forces want thousands more. The goal is more than 7,700, at a cost of about $8.4 billion.
The Army wants 2,500, at a cost of about $2.7 billion. The Marines are planning to buy 3,700 and would send about 3,000 to Iraq. There will be 525 in the country by the end of the year, said Brig. Gen. Mark Gurganus, ground combat commander for U.S. forces in western Iraq.
As the Pentagon scrapes to find the money to run the war in the midst of the budget impasse, the Pentagon says there is not enough cash to buy as many as commanders say they need.
"We can build what we can get the funds to build. It's strictly an issue of money," Gen. Peter Schoomaker, former Army chief of staff, told a Senate committee last month.
Stuff like this is not going to make Speaker Pelosi popular among members of the military and their family and friends. In fact, she's not very popular anyway. But at least she's popular in Syria
The second most popular politician in Syria these days may be an American: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The California Democrat warmed Syrian hearts with her trip last month to Damascus, an event that people still share with visiting Americans as conversational currency.
"Nancy Pelosi is good, yes?" asked a Damascus laborer who found himself sitting next to an American at a greasy gyro stand this week. "Nancy Pelosi, good American."
Yeah. But a better Syrian...
