Political Quotes

“In the letters I received from Secretary Rumsfeld and General Myers, there was never a mention of a shortage of money. They said there was a shortage of materials, which means that there was a failure to plan ahead. We knew months before this war began that we would likely need this body armor, and yet the plans were not made. The fact is that initially they were not even wanting to give the body armor to all the troops. In the letters that I received from General Myers, he said that the body armor was initially planned only for the troops that were on foot. If a soldier was in a Humvee or in some other mechanized vehicle, they were not even issued body armor, and there were no plans to issue body armor to these. Only those who were foot soldiers, basically, were to be provided with this protection. Now, as my colleagues know, many of our soldiers that have been so terribly injured are injured as a result of being in vehicles and there are explosions and other kinds of artillery fire. This body armor could have protected many of them. I am afraid some were wounded unnecessarily.”