Bill Delahunt: “Can I use another word? My colleague said ``wishful thinking.'' Let me be very clear. What we are talking about here is…”

“Can I use another word? My colleague said ``wishful thinking.'' Let me be very clear. What we are talking about here is competence or incompetence, and we are not talking about the military who, clearly, have performed professionally, heroically, and deserve our praise and deserve our support. But what we are talking about is the civilian leadership at the Pentagon and this administration and this Presidency. Let me just for one minute, if I can, here we are now talking about whether there should be a supplemental budget. And recently a colleague of ours, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), visited Iraq and returned in the latter part of March and had private conversations with the generals in charge of the post-combat phase, if you will, according to the President. And they informed him that if there was not a supplemental, there would be serious problems confronting the American military. Again, in a recent story, a recent report, dated April 21, so that is last Wednesday, this is what is happening. Let us be very clear, we have heard again and again colleagues stand up and talk about the inadequate protection being provided to American troops, whether it be vests, whether it be unarmored Humvees. So to make it up, here is what is happening. According to this report, the military is scrambling to fill its needs. The Pentagon last week diverted 120 armored Humvees purchased by the Israeli defense forces to Iraq.”