For all the yellow ribbons and stickers I see everywhere, it seems that Republicans - and BushCo., especially - still can't seem to grasp that "support" means more than just a bumper sticker.
Republicans seem to be more and more ignorant of history as time goes on. If they would only look to the examples set during World War II, they would find examples galore about what it really means to support our troops in combat. Far from retreating from their earlier entreaties to "keep shopping," BushCo. have continued to talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to getting the equipment our soldiers need to them. Despite congressional hearings and plenty of press - for as long as our press can pay attention to any one thing - about the need for more armored Humvees, soldiers are still dying in Iraq because of a lack of these sturdy vehicles.
Even the US Marine Corps has marines breaking ranks to complain about the lack of armored vehicles and what that has meant in terms of dead marines. The "brass" is not happy about this turn of events and some are paying the price - check out the details in this New York Times article. It seems that there is still only one, small, contractor up-armoring Humvees for the military. Imagine if the president were just to ask one of The Big-Three auto makers to produce armor kits for military vehicles. The press coverage alone would be worth a couple of points of market share for the winning contractor.
But like the rest of Bush's dirty little war, this is being run on the cheap - or at least being sold to the American people on the cheap. No sacrifices, no tax increases to pay for it, no pictures of the dead.
Dead that would still be alive but for a few pieces of armor.
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