NO! TO SURGE

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced shortages of key protective equipment including armored vehicles, roadside-bomb countermeasures and communications gear, a Pentagon survey released Tuesday shows. The Defense Department Inspector General's Office polled roughly 1,100 service members and found they weren't always adequately equipped for their missions. The troops were interviewed in Iraq and Afghanistan last May and June.

Those surveyed reported shortcoming with vehicles outfitted with armor; “crew-served weapons,” which are weapons it takes more than one person to handle, such as artillery or a large machine gun; electronic countermeasure devices, such as equipment designed to foil roadside bombs by interfering with cell-phone signals that may be used to detonate them; and communications equipment.

The survey found that those not getting needed gear include troops performing untraditional missions such as training, reconstruction, detainee operations and explosive ordnance disposal. In some cases, they went ahead with the work anyway, used informal means to get what they needed or canceled or put off operations while waiting for equipment, the report summary said. The report found the U.S. Central Command and the Army's internal equipment controls inadequate and recommends improvements. Only a summary of the findings were made public; much of the report is classified.

Did you see this? How much longer are we going to sit on the sidelines while Bush and his administration continue to disregard the safety of our troops while they continue to escalate the number they send in to a civil war for horrendous injuries and death? I recently received an email from http://www.moveon.org/ asking me to take a photo of myself holding a sign and send it to them, protesting various things one of which was to stop the war in Iraq. Moveon.org would in turn take the photos collected to my congressman and senators. So I did. It made me feel better since I had not been able to take to the streets to protest the Iraq war in Washington D.C. last weekend.

Now this article appears in the Dallas Morning News Wednesday and I need to do some thing else to once again feel relevant in trying to stop this madness being pushed upon our country by the Bush/Chaney regime.

The next day Thursday Feb. 1st I was saddened to hear that the great Molly Ivins had passed away. She was an inspiration to all progressives every where and she will be missed. A fighter to the end, one of her last columns was an admonition about the Bush/Cheney so called surge of troops. She said “We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step out side and take some action to help stop this war. We need people in the streets, banging on pots and pans and demanding ‘Stop it, now!” Read the entire column at: http://www.creators.com/opinion/molly-ivins/stand-up-against-the-surge.html

So now I am determined more than ever to protest in every way that I can. So my friend, don’t be surprised if you see me somewhere on the streets carrying my sign and protesting the Bush/Cheney Iraq War. I think I’ll start right here right now with this sign.(see photo) Maybe I’ll take along a pan to bang on.

Oh, one more thing if you thought that the total number of surge troops will be 21,500 like the President told you during his SOU speech. He lied again and here is the proof http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003239.html