Halliburton Yes, Troops No?

Via pessimist at The LeftCoaster

BIW aids officer in armoring Humvees

BATH — On May 13, an e-mail from a Bath Iron Works employee deployed in Iraq sent shipyard workers running to get a pallet of life-saving tools to the Maine National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion in Mosul. "It said, short and sweet, 'We need something that will cut steel,' " said Rene Bisson, who received the e-mail. "He's one of us and he asked for help."

What they needed was tools to cut steel so they could armor their unarmored Humvees.

The 133rd had more than 400 sheets of metal to cut down and weld onto their Humvees, adding what armor they could to their vehicles in the field. But the battalion had no torches for cutting, and couldn't procure them through military means.

"Torches aren't part of our inventory," said Brig. Gen. John Libby, head of the state's National Guard. "That's not what we do. But Dave knew where they did have torches."

pessimist says it well:

"Billions for Bechtel and Halliburton, not one red cent for our troops???? George Bush is a lying bag of Bandini every time he claims that he supports our troops. Conservatives in this country should be outraged everytime he makes that specious claim."

Thanks to pessimist for finding this gem. This story should be plastered all over the blogosphere.