Yet Another Bush Irony

[rjung]

Then:
“If called on by the commander in chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, ‘Not ready for duty, sir.’”
–George W. Bush, August 3, 2000
(Of course, this was a total lie, but that’s nothing new for George)
Now:
“…the rigors of fighting a counterinsurgency have demolished much of the Army’s equipment and allowed its soldiers’ skills to atrophy. For the first time, three Army divisions — more than a third of its combat troops — are classified as unfit to fight.”
–“Far From Ready for More War,” Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2004

[Yeticus_Rex]

Admit it…You really do love our president, don’t you?

[Munch]

Why is that ironic?

[Finagle]

Am I wrong, or is the fact that we weren’t in a war in 2001 and we have been for the past year make these two quotes utterly incomparable?

There are a lot of reasons to critique our chief executive, but this particular gibe is just lame.
(And the article makes it pretty clear that they are refitting the division, so it’s not like they’re just sitting on their thumbs watching their Humvees rust in the sun.)

[Squink]

@Finagle

There are a lot of reasons to critique our chief executive, but this particular gibe is just lame.

It posesses a nice symmetry though. Here we are, as you say, in the middle of a war, and the troops are less ready than they were before Bush promised that “Help is on the way.”

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

But we’re not in a war. Bush said so.

[DoctorJ]

There have been a few letters to our local paper laying the blame for the current quagmire in Iraq squarely on the shoulders of…you guessed it…Bill Clinton. He apparently left the military in such shoddy shape that they are simply unable to do the job.

I’m guessing that, a year ago–back when the mission was accomplished, and the military was the greatest fighting force the world had ever known–these same people were not exactly lining up to give Clinton credit.

[Reeder]

so it’s not like they’re just sitting on their thumbs watching their Humvees rust in the sun.

Very little in a humvee to rust. Not much protection there.

Haliburton gets the armored ones.

Interesting article…

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Before his unit shipped from Kuwait to Iraq in March, 1st Lt. Christian Boggiano, 23, made a special appeal to his mother, Mary, by e-mail message. Please, he asked, scrounge around for a few old police bulletproof vests and mail them to me.

“Once I get up north, we’ll use them on the doors and floors of the Humvees so when roadside bombs go off they’ll catch a lot of shrapnel,” wrote Boggiano, a 2002 graduate of West Point.

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/23046.php

[rjung]

@DoctorJ

I’m guessing that, a year ago–back when the mission was accomplished, and the military was the greatest fighting force the world had ever known–these same people were not exactly lining up to give Clinton credit.

From memory–

Al Franken: “Hey, Dr. Wolfowitz, Bill Clinton’s army did a great job in Afghanistan, didn’t they?”
Paul Wolfowitz: “Fuck you.”

And yeah, I find it “ironic” that Bush lies about Bill Clinton leaving the US Army in disarray, then turns around and fucks things up even worse. But then, I’m a man of simple pleasures.