Tony Snow is either an idiot or a whore to say something this stupid with a straight face. Sending soldiers into a dangerous urban warfare situation without specialized training isn't a surge. It's a setup for disaster.

How many MORE good men and women are going to die to feed Bush's ego and preserve his political bacon?

When will a majority of military rank and file (and their families)finally express their outrage? Buy and large, their still very supportive of the Bush administration. I don't get it at all.

Is that where they'll get their body armour, Humvee armor, and triage too?

Tony Snow has been to Iraq, so he thinks he's an expert. Remember that great photo of him and Dan Bartlett in full Kevlar regalia in the belly of a Marine chopper over Baghdad on their way to the Green Zone last year? Tony and Dan were all but gripped in a fearful embrace like Abbott and Costello, looking airsick and scared shitless. Nearby, God bless him, a very relaxed Marine door gunner looks out over Baghdad below as if it was just another boring day.

The contrast between him and the two dudes from Washington who are about to lose their shrimp cocktail, is so funny I printed out the picture and have it on my office wall.

Let's see if I have this straight:

1) John Murtha wants to ensure that our troops are properly equipped and thoroughly trained before we send them into a five-way civil war. In other words, he wants them as prepared as possible before they go into combat. For this, he is branded a traitor to the troops and accused of undermining their morale.

2) This administration has already been undersupplying our troops, and now they want to throw them into this meat grinder WITHOUT the training they need. I'm sure the commanders on the ground will be pleased to receive 21,000 under-equipped, under-trained troops who are more likely to get themselves, and the men already there, killed through their lack of training.

That sure sounds like the best way to "support the troops" and "boost morale", doesn't it?

I feel like I'm living in Bizarro World.

Bush is your puppy, you housebreak him. At this point, anyone in the Armed Forces who expresses outrage at being dealt a bad hand is either lying to you or stupid. We're 4 years in. If you got shafted then it officially sucks to be you. Come 2008 you will overwhelmingly vote Republican anyway so send me a postcard from Basra.

Is beyond disgusting. What a fitting mouthpiece for this entire disgusting administration.

Yeah. Just like they didn't need training going in, ripped straight from boot camp with their faces still hollow skulls from all the love and care of their drill instructors.

Just like they didn't need desert boots in 130 degree heat and came home with trench foot.

Just like they didn't need more than one ration a day.

Just like they didn't need drinking water, until their families dug into their meager family budgets and started mailing them cases of bottled water.

Just like they didn't need up-to-date helmets, uless they went online and ordered one, like my son.

Just like they didn't need armored Humvees, until they started scavenging bits of metal and wood to stick on the unprotected vehicles they were riding in.

Just like they didn't need body armor until their families and communities started taking up collections and begging for used police vests and sending them over.

Just like they haven't needed all the basics and a couple of comforts until their families spent comparative fortunes sending care packages regularly.

Just like they didn't need a thank you until the public started caring, though they are yet to get a genuine thank you (photo ops not eligible) from their commander-in-chief and his command center of draft-dodging morons.

Just like they didn't need planning to make their efforts, and their deaths worthwhile.

Just like they didn't need to be home with their families for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, births of their own children.

Just like they didn't need the income from the jobs they were jerked out of again and again to serve 24/7 for slave wages.

Just like they didn't need to be given care for the mental and spiritual wounds of brutal combat.

Just like they didn't need anything better than a rat infested convalescence that would raise eyebrows as an SRO flophouse.

Just like they didn't need to have their disabilities treated in a timely manner.

Just like they didn't need to be treated fairly, humanely, respectfully when they come home battered and maimed.

That these men and women have been treated so badly is a national shame that we will never, never erase. That this administration and its spokespeople can continually ignore or trivialize the needs of the people who have suffered so much for George W. Bush's wet dream of being a man among men without actually having to do anything...is insufferable.

Apparently we can't stop them...but for God's sake, can't we just shut them the hell up!

To get killed or wounded does not require special training. So say the experts in the White House like Mr. Snowjob and his bosses. Send the troops anyway. And no photos of coffins returning, please.