About that body armor- they were getting it no matter what the vote was

I see on dailykos and here that people want Kerry to confront the body armor issue up front by turning it back on Bush- saying he threatened to veto the bill, and the body armor was a millionth of a percent of the entire 87 billion, etc.... Well, these are all good and true but there is one essential fact about the body armor that Kerry needs to point out (and I trust he will):

The troops were getting the body armor no matter what the vote was.
The vote was all about HOW to pay for the war. Not what.

After you establish that, THEN you may ask "Why did Bush send them there without enough body armor to begin with?"

Kerry has to FIRST cover himself with the first point because he is getting smeared left and right as a troop hating, vet spitting on, anti-American liberal. The "Bush threatended to veto it first" response doesn't work because that just makes Kerry look defensive-and the 'see? your as bad as I am' is a turn off. Bush likes to say "there is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat" yet their safety depends on a vote in congress as they stand on a battlefield in the middle of a war?

Kerry has to convey this point.

:thumbsup:

The Democrats could start responding to some of the criticism by asking body armor was doing in a supplemental bill?

president was flown onto an aircraft carrier (USS Lincoln) and said major combat operations were over. So for 7 months, our troops were fighting Iraqis without the best type of body armor and armored vehicles because the CinC rushed the armed forces into a war.

What was the rush ? We're still there today....

Exactly. You need to post this on forum.johnkerry.com so his campaign might read it. A lie unanswered is a lie spread.

"It is an outright lie to suggest that our troops getting body armor depended on the outcome of that vote. The truth is they were getting it no matter how congress voted. The real question should be, 'Why were they sent there without it?'"

Ahh. That feels good!

That's how important this issue is.

There was another authorization for body armor and humvee armor in the 2005 budget. What the hell is going on? When is Bush going to take charge of something and get the job done right?

wise words from Karl Rove and he's right.

without the equipiment they need to protect themselves. It's the least a Commander and Chief can do for the men and women who risk their lives for our freedom every day and George W. Bush failed to live up to his responsibilities to those men and women and their families."

This is such a no brainer. Why did there have to be a fucking "vote" to get these people body armor? They should have had it to begin with.

it in the first place! The M'fers had been planning this damn war since at least 9/01, so they had about a year and half to make sure the troops had adequate body armor, and up-armored Humvees.

The complaints occurred long before that vote from troops, spouses and parents. And even after the vote it took a very long time to get the factories producing the armor and the armored Humvees. Kerry needs to throw this right back on Bush, Cheney and Rummy!

Thank goodness we didn't have an idiot administration like this in WWII or we'd all be speaking German or Japanese as the wingnuts would put it. Think how quickly we geared up production right after Pearl Harbor and we didn't have the luxury of all the technological tools we have now such as computers and software.

Course back then we had actual factories!

back at Bush.

I understand where you are all coming from, you're saying cut to the chase- Bush fucked up. But I am equally concerned about the damage to Kerry.
Bush LIED about Kerry's vote. It never would have prevented the troops from getting body armor.