Hillary Get's It Right-Calls Bush "Incompetent"

How would you like to be the father or the mother of one of the many Marines that were killed because George Bush, Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld thought the extra $260 was too much money to spend on protecting them?

Sen. Clinton Says Lack of Body Armor is 'Unforgivable' She Has Called for an Investigation Into Why Soldiers Are Not Fully Protected Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Bush administration "incompetent" when it came to protecting the troops in combat and called the lack of adequate body armor for soldiers and Marines "unforgivable." So far in Iraq, more than 2,100 American troops have been killed. Critics like Clinton, D-N.Y., say that many of these deaths are the result of inadequate body armor. A secret Pentagon study of 93 Marines who were killed in Iraq found that 74 died after they were hit by a bullet or shrapnel in the torso or shoulders -- areas unprotected by the armor most are issued. "We perhaps could have avoided so many of these fatalities with the right body armor," said Clinton, who recently wrote letters to Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee; Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee; and Francis J. Harvey, secretary of the Army, calling for an investigation into why troops were not being protected. Clinton pointed to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as the culprits. Some have said that supplying Marines and soldiers with armor that covers their sides is too expensive -- costing about $260 for each person. Clinton said that considering the United States' defense budget was half a trillion dollars, the additional protection was affordable. She said the administration had refused to listen to people in the field like Paul Bremer, former ambassador to Iraq, who said the United States needed more troops in Iraq to pacify the country. "This is Bush/Cheney policy. … I've been one of the leading critics pointing out all the failures, the incompetencies," Clinton said. "I am just bewildered as to how this president and this vice president continue to isolate themselves from different point of views. He's [President Bush has] got three more years in office. Some of us wish this wasn't the case."