Lost before it began...

Today:

Study: MRAP refusal led to Marine deaths

Delay should be investigated, author says
By Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 15, 2008
Hundreds of Marines have been killed or injured by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps bureaucrats refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, an internal military study concludes.

... and back then:

Rumsfeld Gets Earful From Troops
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking in Kuwait yesterday to troops deploying into Iraq, got an earful of complaints about poor combat equipment...
...
In one of the exchanges during the town-hall-style meeting, Spec. Thomas Wilson complained that he and his comrades were rooting through junkyards to find improvised armor for their military vehicles to protect against bomb blasts and small-arms attacks.
...
Rumsfeld replied: "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

Folks, I don't know how to break this to you gently, so I'll just be blunt:

We lost this war before it began.

We chose the timing.
We were not responding to an attack.
We were not pre-empting an imminent attack.

W and Rummy decided the year, the month, the day, the hour to start the war.

Our brave men in uniform have been paying for this folly ever since.

W is still in office.

Rummy, not quite disgraced, is gone to a peaceful private life.

Our soldiers and Marines are still dying.

Stop the madness!