Janice Schakowsky: “as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) said earlier, he referred back to the prime time press conference that the…”

“as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) said earlier, he referred back to the prime time press conference that the President had some weeks ago where he could not think of any mistakes he had made in response to a question. So some of us have been offering ideas so at the next, if he has one, prime time press conference he would not have to fumble for an answer. I have to say that with the year anniversary of ``mission accomplished,'' that speech on the deck of the aircraft carrier, that he might want to think about some mistakes that have been made regarding the war in Iraq. Whether one is for or against the war in Iraq, here is something to consider. I wanted to use not my own words, but I wanted to refer to the Newsweek of May 3 and just read a couple of sections here. ``For the Bush administration,'' this is all a quote, ``it has been a mantra, one the President intones repeatedly: America's troops will get whatever they need to do the job. But as Iraq's liberation has turned into a daily grind of low intensity combat and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld grudgingly raises troop levels, many soldiers who are there say the Pentagon is failing to protect them with the best technology America has to offer. Especially tanks, Bradleys, and other heavy vehicles, even in some cases body armor. That has been the tragic lesson of April, a month in which a record 115 U.S. soldiers have died so far, and 879 others have been wounded, 560 of them fairly seriously.…”