1115.org

First they said there would be “plenty of opportunities for people to talk and to share their opinions” about Bush’s escalation plan before it was even announced, let alone implemented. (Okay, that was only Tony Snow, and who in her right mind would believe a word he said?)

Then they said there would be ample opportunity early on to assess whether the escalation plan was working before many of the U.S. troops were actually shipped off to Iraq.

Now this was Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense. Apparently, no one in her right mind should believe a word he says either, because it took only two weeks for his words to be proved wrong. They decided they were going to rush the 21,500 new soldiers there post-haste.

Now it turns out that they plan to rush them in without necessary armor and other equipment:

Boosting U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 21,500 would create major logistical hurdles for the Army and Marine Corps, which are short thousands of vehicles, armor kits and other equipment needed to supply the extra forces, U.S. officials said.
[…]
President Bush’s plan to send five additional U.S. combat brigades into Iraq has left the Army and Marines scrambling to ensure that the troops could be supported with the necessary armored vehicles, jamming devices, radios and other gear, as well as lodging and other logistics.

Trucks are in particularly short supply. For example, the Army would need 1,500 specially outfitted — known as “up-armored” — 2 1/2 -ton and five-ton trucks in Iraq for the incoming units, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for force development.

“We don’t have the [armor] kits, and we don’t have the trucks,” Speakes said in an interview. He said it will take the Army months, probably until summer, to supply and outfit the additional trucks. As a result, he said, combat units flowing into Iraq would have to share the trucks assigned to units now there…
[…]
…U.S. commanders privately expressed doubts that Iraq-bound units would receive a full complement of Humvees. “It’s inevitable that that has to happen, unless five brigades of up-armored Humvees fall out of the sky,” one senior Army official said of the feared shortfall.

No doubt a lot of this is confusing. So just remember: if you oppose Bush’s escalation plan, you are hurting our troops. To support them, you have to rise to your feet and applaud while Bush sends them off to war without necessary armor.