ecently a relative asked me if I would put a yellow ribbon on my car to show support for our troops currently in the field of battle, in Iraq. I said that I would, but that I didn't believe that it served any purpose. The president has not called upon us to do anything of a supportive nature; no increased taxes to assure that the troops will get the armor they need on their vehicles and body, to protect their lives. I sort of long for the Kennedy era of "ask not what your country can do for you...but what you can do for your country." More troops are being sent abroad while at the same time the administration assures us that things are progressing well. I tend not to believe the rosy picture painted by the president. Just yesterday when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld (yes, one of the few who will be staying on in the cabinet for a second term! Why?), paid a visit to Iraqi bound troops at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, to lead a morale -lifting town hall discussion, he found himself on the defensive. When specialist Thomas Wilson with the Tennessee National Guard asked the Secretary of Defense why our troops had to scrounge through landfills for pieces of rusty scrap metal and bulletproof glass - what they call "hillbilly armor," to bolt to their trucks. Why United States troops lacked proper armor to protect their trucks. The Secretary responded that "you go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." He then added gratuitously that armor isn't sufficient anyway, because even a well-protected tank can be blown up. As Jay Leno pointed out in his monologue last evening, "whereupon the Secretary got into his bullet proof limousine and left."
Alan Feuer, writing on the front page of today's New York Times, opened a story on the casualties of this week which began simply and graphically.

That's a sampling of what's been happening over the past few days from one region of the country, following on last month's bloodiest and most physically costly month of the war, to date.
Of course we all support our troops. We don't all believe that this war was right or necessary, or that it is having any beneficial response to international terrorism . Many of us believe it is furthering the cause of those who are our avowed enemies and possibly breeding more terrorists, or as they see themselves to be, jihadists and martyrs. We support our troops and pray for their safety and success. This is the President's war. He wanted it and he got it. Now it is up to him to find a way to successfully conclude it and, perhaps he will then move on to other battlefields.
For our brave men and women who fight with valor and give their all for their country, I'll post that yellow ribbon, and I await real leadership in Washington.
I pointed out at the start of this journal report that the event staged by the Secretary of Defense took place in Kuwait. He had been expected to go on to Iraq on this trip. Pentagon officials insist that security was not an issue, but there was only a forty mile separation between Kuwait and where he was expected to visit. Lest we forget, our president promised during the campaign that the troops would have all the body armor they needed. Secretary Rumsfeld, you may have read that a spokesperson for the unit of the specialist who challenged you told reporters that fully 95% of its 300 trucks were insufficiently armored.