Why I love the internet

One canard that has irritated me for a while is the claim that American troops have not had body armor in Iraq. This irritates me because I think there's no excuse for not providing the troops with everything they need. It turns out, it's not true. In fact, the troops have always had body armor - the Kevlar armor that they've had for years. What they haven't had in sufficient quantity is the new ceramic body armor that provides much more protection. The problem was one of supply capacity, not a lack of concern by our government or financial finagling.

Since the Interceptor technology emerged in 1999, the military has been gradually replacing the older vests. At the outset of the war, about 40,000 troops lacked the new Interceptor armor, although every soldier on the ground possessed the older armor. According to Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, industries are producing the new armor "as fast as they can and as fast as they're making it we're getting it to Iraq." Three manufacturers worked overtime to produce the vests and plates required to outfit everyone in Iraq by the end of the year, and by mid-January 2004, all troops in Iraq possessed the up-to-date vests. By mid-summer, sufficient numbers of armored Humvees will have arrived.

The other issue that comes as no surprise is that the Democrats have lied about the issue and used it to demagogue the President. (What else is new?)

During an overheated speech before an adoring MoveOn crowd, Al Gore told a story perfectly calculated to laud the troops while lambasting the president. While "there was a high level of competence on the part of our soldiers," it was lamentable that "their families have to hold bake sales to buy discarded Kevlar vests to stuff into the floorboards of the Humvees! Bake sales for body armor." In the same vein, John Kerry assured Americans that "as president, I will see to it that we don't have to have bake sales...to supply the troops of the United States of America."

Though the slogan, "bake sales for body armor," expresses the kind of faux outrage appropriate to the political silly season, as far as I can tell, Gore and Kerry seem not to have their facts straight.

It doesn't appear that any family-organized bake sales for body armor took place. Some New Hampshire families held a bake sale in early May to raise money for more "care package items" and to fund a coming-home party next year. The mother of one soldier was grateful to those who donated calling cards because calling cards, she explained, "are the most important thing." In Tennessee, a chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars held a dance and a bake sale to support a Marine who had returned to their community from Afghanistan missing a leg. And police officers around the country have collected discarded bulletproof vests and shipped them to Iraq for the troops to use on the doors and floors of their Humvees, making them lightly armored vehicles. "It doesn't matter whether or not you're in favor of the war — the people over there still need our help and support," the Michigan leader of one such effort said. Many Americans are inspired by similar sentiments.

It's a new day in America. It's no longer possible to lie for political gain and get away with it. Someone is always watching.