You go to war with the Army you've got, not the Army you want. But you'll never get the Army you want if you don't try

Here we go again:

After nearly four years of war in Iraq, the Pentagon's effort to protect its troops against roadside bombs is in disarray, with soldiers and Marines having to swap access to scarce armored vehicles and the military unsure whether it has the money or industrial capacity to produce the safe vehicles it says the troops need.

On Jan. 10, the Baltimore Sun reported that most of the 21,500 troops President Bush has ordered to Iraq as reinforcements will not have access to specialized blast-resistant armored vehicles because they are in such short supply.

Gee, wouldn't you think the United States of America could have gotten it's production capacity up to snuff faster than this? When was it that people started to complain about the shortage of armored vehicles and stuff? As early as 2004, if not earlier, as I recall. Two years, and we still can't do this?

Think back just a minute to the war production effort that occurred when we entered World War II. The country was put on rationing. Whole factories were converted from peacetime to wartime use. We stopped building cars and started building tanks. And, all this took place really quickly. After all, the whole length of our engagement in World War II was shorter than the time we've already been in Iraq without body armor.

Under Bush, we've gone from the "can do" country to the "we can't get it done" country.

[Hat tip to Crooks and Liars]