Political Quotes

“The civilian leadership, not the military. It is the civilian leadership, and we had months to prepare for this war. There were months during which we knew that war was likely to occur before the actual conflict started. General Myers has said recently, wait a minute, this is not a matter of money, this is a matter of production. We just cannot simply get these vests produced rapidly enough, and so our soldiers will not receive these until December, but he is saying that after they were exposed. If the public had not achieved knowledge that these soldiers were being unprotected, they would not be trying to get these vests made for the soldiers. It was only after they were exposed. In May, I received a letter from a young soldier saying that I and all of my men have the vests that will not stop bullets, and we have had stories of moms and dads taking money out of their own pockets and buying these protective equipment and sending them to Iraq and young soldiers literally duct taping them to their bodies because they do not have the proper vests to hold these ceramic inserts. That is quite shameful. I do not want anyone in this administration lecturing me about my concern for our troops. I would spend the last dollar available to this government to protect our soldiers, but I will not support a policy that is flawed.”