Soldiers in Iraq Still Underequipped and Warned of Increased Casualties

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Boosting U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 21,500 would create major logistical hurdles for the Army and Marine Corps, which are short thousands of vehicles, armor kits and other equipment needed to supply the extra forces, U.S. officials said.

Besides discussing the shortage of vehicles (Humvees), the article went on to discuss that training for deploying units will be reduced with the administration's accelerated depoloyment scheme. 

Meanwhile, the demand for thousands more U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan is worsening the readiness of units in the United States, depleting their equipment and time to train, Army officials said. "We can fulfill the national strategy, but it will take more time and it will also take us increased casualties to do the job," Speakes (Lt. General) said.

But the real kicker came at the end:

The equipment shortages are pronounced in Army National Guard units, which have, on average, 40 percent of their required equipment, according to Army data. Senior Pentagon and Army officials say they expect to have to involuntarily mobilize some National Guard combat brigades earlier than planned to relieve active-duty forces. But the Guard as a whole is not expected to return to minimum equipment levels until 2013, Army figures show.

So we are still sending our troops to Iraq without the training and equipment they need to stay alive. 

Bush's solution:  "Let's have a tax cut."

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