With a President like this. . .

Although cheerleaders for George W. Bush and war in general like to talk of battles and victories, the majority of casualties amongst our troops in Iraq result from roadside bombs, something the standard Humvee offers little protection against. Although some of them have been upgraded and equipped with improvised armor by the troops, the switch from Hummers to the Cougar and the M1117 Armored Security Vehicle would save a very considerable amount of American lives. "They are expensive, but they are going to save lives," said Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, during a recent trip to Iraq. But there’s the rub. According to the Baltimore Sun, procurement of such armored vehicles is painfully slow and the additional troops “surging” into Baghdad will not likely be riding in them any time soon.

Actually, the Improvised Explosive Devices doing such horrible damage to our occupying forces and the lack of vehicles that can offer protection against them are problems that grow from the same source: the obstinate refusal of George W. Bush to plan for that occupation and the removal from his presence of anyone suggesting the need. Not much effort was made to secure Iraqi stockpiles of explosives at the time Bush’s “mission” was accomplished because Democracy and peace were due to spring up within days and they were consequently stolen. Little money was budgeted for the development and purchase of armored vehicles simply because the Warpresident insisted that we were only weeks away from “victory.”

So when we hear that that 60 or more percent of the casualties among the “surges” result from inadequate Humvees and that rate could have been reduced to around 2% by use of armored vehicles; when we hear from the Government Accountability Office that all these deaths result from explosives literally handed to insurgents by George W. Bush and his merry band of bastards what can we ask ourselves but that with a President like this, who needs enemies?