Post Magazine: Fatal Inaction

Brian Hart is struggling to understand why the United States went to war without the armor that would have saved lives, including that of his son.

April Witt , whose story about Hart and his decision "to raise holy Hell until people understood what was going on" appeared in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine , is online Monday, June 19, at Noon ET , to field questions and comments.

April Witt is a Magazine staff writer.

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April Witt: Greetings everybody. Thanks so much for your comments and questions. Thanks, too, for taking time to join Brian Hart and I today. Brian and Alma Hart suffered the worst loss any partents can. Rather than be merely angry, bitter, or paralyzed by grief, they have channeled their sorrow into activism. I'm glad Brian was able to join us here today. Let's get started.

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Eugene, Ore.: Dear Ms. Witt and Mr. Hart;

I am a Marine veteran of that "other bad war" (are there ever any good ones?), but seldom read the news accounts of the Iraq conflict. Your account caught my attention and held it throughout the entire piece. Superb reporting and storytelling. Here's one paragraph, that I believe, really captures the essence of the problem:

"Working furiously, Brian felt out of step with a seemingly complacent American public. He reread Martin Luther King's Letters from a Birmingham Jail and identified with the civil rights leader's frustration at 'the silence of good people.'"

The American people are far too complacent about this war. They are being drowned by lies and rhetoric and evasions by the proponents and directors of this insanity and congress is complicit in the travesty.

The military's young men and women continue to die while the merchants become unblievably rich - as illustrated by the politically well-connected owner of DBH Industries' body armor contract.

Here's my suggestion: print 535 copies of this article and have them delivered to every member of congress by the end of this week. Maybe there are a few politicians who still have a moral conscience and will take some action to either immediately end the war or properly supply the troops with the equipment they need to survive.

I'm not overly hopefull of this outcome, but perhaps the memory of Dr. King's frustration at "the silence of good people," will distract them from their phony political charades and spur them to action. I sincerely hope this article affects them as much as it has me.

April Witt: Thanks so much for your comments. It's clear that the American public has checked out to some extent on the bad news about the war. In human terms, that's understandable. Who wants to focus on something horrible that they feel they can do nothing about. Alma Hart told me, when I first met her, that she likens this to people turning the channel when a TV news report of a child's death in foster care comes on. Criticism of how the war has been conducted has been muted effectively by politicians who portrayed critics as unpatriotic or not supporting the troops. That's why I liked telling the Harts' story. They are deeply patriotic. They are only about supporting the troops so nobody else's son or daughter dies without the equipment they need.

Brian Hart: Alma and I felt cursed to be 12 months ahead of the American public for the last couple of years. Many times we felt we were having no impact at all. But slowly we've seen change - awareness. A friend tells me the first snow flakes seem to make no impact at all as they melt into the ground, but they prepare the way for others.

About a year ago when people of all persuasions started calling us activists and agitators, we couldn't believe it. At first we were offended, or more dumbfounded. I told a relative recently that I was busy tie dying my Brooks Brothers shirts when she asked what we were doing.

If agitation means getting something done then so be it. Of all things though, the silence of good people has been the most disturbing thing to me. Most folks just don't have skin in the game. They opt out with apathy. Why watch the news from Iraq when they can waste their time with American Idol.

News agencies were just as bad. It was cheaper and easier to send a reporter to a Michael Jackson trial than it was to report from outside the green zone .

We've made it too easy to send some other man's son to war.

Fact is this war has torn up a small percentage of the country - 2-3 percent of the country carrying the burden of war for others. This unshared burden is tearing at the soldiers and their families.

The cost of war has simply been hidden from public view. The coffins land at Dover without photography. The wounded have their names withheld from the public under the guise of patient confidentiality. Their re-integration into the mainstream will be made all the harder because of their segregation.

Taxes went down, not up. Where was the talk about buying war bonds? Of sacrifice or deferred wealth? It didn't happen in this war. Why? If this war were really worth fighting shouldn't Americans be expected to share in the sacrifices?

At first Alma and I wanted to throw rocks at yellow humvees that drove by. We knew the plants production lines at AM General and GM could be converted despite statements from the Army in 2004 to the contrary. In 2005-2006 as humvees sales slumped, production did in fact shift to making M1152s and M1114s and so on using those very same lines.

In WWII civilian automobile production was pre-empted. 50,000 Sherman tanks were produced and tens of thousands of bombers were produced within a shorter period of time than this war on terror has been going on. This country simply never committed its manufacturing base to resolving the equipment problems - not steel, not armored humvees, not retrofit applique armor, not trucks, not tires, not bandages, not night vision goggles, not body armor, not tourniquets, not even bullets. We simply never pushed the envelope.

I'm pretty sure it was because the cost of the war - in blood and treasure - was being hidden from the American public. Who ever heard of a war where we get tax breaks? What baloney. The burden of this war is being hidden.

My contention has been that unless people - average Americans - feel the cost of war they will never be able to gauge whether its worth the cost. If a war is truly needed, and I think the one in Afghanistan was, then that cost is borne by a democratic republic willingly. If for some reason the leadership of the country thinks that the cause might not be worth the price, then one solution is to hide that cost. That's were we are at today.

In 2004 we realized that politicians couldn't say no to supporting the troops if they were confronted in public. We began organizing national guard families and friends that were contacting us asking for help into groups to write their local congressmen and senators.

What was unusual about this war is that the national guard was called up in great numbers. That meant middle age, middle class families were suddenly confronted with the realities of poor equipment. Since every congressional district had a National Guard unit, that grass roots lobbying turned out to be amazingly effective. We had mothers in Connecticut and elsewhere hounding down people like Christopher Shays and Lieberman in restaurants. This worked.

It could work again if we could get some leadership on our Iraq foreign policy. I pretty convinced now that the best way to protect the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is with a well thought-out foreign policy.

Besides the internet which allowed information to flow from Iraq to the homes of their loved ones with light speed, there was the fact that the national guard was often made up of police officers. Fact is a 30 something state trooper is less likely to buy the bull being thrown at him for lack of equipment than a 19 year-old. The Pentagon simply didn't take that into account. Put a pissed off cop in Iraq on a computer can make things happen.

It got to a point, that in Feb. 2005 generals were sent to testify at the Senate Armed Services Committee about the state of truck and humvees armor. The statement was that no vehicle left the forward operating bases without armor. It wasn't true. And that morning - the morning of the hearing - I had photos taken just hours before in Iraq delivered to key senators on SASC to prove it. Even the spinmeisters at the Pentagon couldn't move that fast. Needless to say after a period of embarrassment, the generals got the job done and shortly thereafter all vehicles to my knowledge leaving the gates had some sort of armor, even if it was hillbilly. Hillbilly beat a cotton t-shirt any day. Basically we used the internet and grass roots organizing to get the bureaucracy to do what it should have in the first place. Generals hate that, but I don't care. They should do their job instead of lie about it.

The Pentagon and the Congress respond to organized public pressure. That's why the Pentagon could suddenly select a pouch for tourniquets and agree to universal fielding the week after the Baltimore Sun ran its stories in 2005 (after waiting two years). It's why the Marines selected a side body armor plate in January 2006 a few days after the NYT ran its story on the marine corps negligence in side plating (after sitting on the problem for two years). It's why in Nov 2003 the Pentagon made public the armored humvees and body armor problems - it was on CNN and being asked of them in the Senate by Kennedy and Warner. This is a bad way to run a war, having the public impact decisions about equipment, but what else is there? The rest of the system is just broken. Special interests fund junk we don't need all the time and siphon money away from critical needs behind closed doors. At least the public, the families of national guardsmen and enlisted personnel had the interest of the foot soldier in mind.

Most of the debates in congress and PR spin coming out of the Pentagon now is about disinformation - misdirecting and dividing the public. The fact is, the overwhelming majority of the people would support funding equipment and training to get the troops what they need, but they don't know. The public is lied to and to some extent lazy. The center of the country has got to rise above party politics and focus on what it means to be an American.

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Geneva, Ill: What equipment did US troops actually have when they were first deployed to Iraq and was equipment determined on the basis of best case or worst case scenarion?

Brian Hart: Initially One-third or more were missing modern body armor.

At the initiation of hostilities, heavy armor was in place supported by unarmored humvees. There were lots of tanks and Bradleys. Once the "official" fighting stopped, those heavy pieces of armor were simply removed from Iraq - many desperately needed spare parts. One-third of the Bradleys didn't have working treads and were not running.

That left light unarmored humvees - pulling the armor out saved money, but ultimately cost lives. There were only 235 or so M1114 armored humvees in Iraq by the summer of 2003 and less than 450 by the end of December 2003. The rest had nothing. Now there are over 12,000 M1114 armored humvees and about 25,000 Level II (Factory armor but field installed on older chassis) where there were none in 2003.

When Fallujah flared up in the spring of 2004, there were only 125 Abrams tanks in Iraq and only 75 of them could roll. We didn't have the fuel or the ammo to mount an offensive in Fallujah, so we pulled back and re-attacked in Nov 04. The interim period allowed the insurgents to organize in Fallujah. It changed the insurgency forever.

Inexplicably the army left 700 or so M113 super Gavins in Kuwait and didn't field them in Iraq until the Spring 2005. Madness. People died because of this.

Last fall (05) Congress found out that around 800 brand spanking new M1114s were sitting for months in Kuwait waiting for the 4th ID to arrive in 2006 while the 3rd ID and the marines ran equipment short for six months. This again cost lives. The list goes on.

The military, the army and the marines specifically, simply didn't buy the equipment needed to fight this war. It bought stuff for the Cold War that never happened. Gradually they've come around but only slowly. IEDs, retrofit armor and SAPI plates aren't sexy so they don't get funded. Years of war have changed that, but thousands died to pay the price of this education.

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Rockville, Md: This is a tough subject to take any position other than "save lives." Especially on this holiday it is difficult to consider options. However, when I was with the Infantry in Vietnam we never considered armor for jeeps. They were to be fast and not to be used in heavy combat. It is more than just "go to war with what you have." It is also "build your tactics on what you can do." Perhaps these were places that should have been supplied by air. Perhaps the ground was too dangerous for unarmored convoys. If these older hummers with out armor were to be used, then the tactics should have been to clear safe routes and (as we did on the road from Di An to Lai Khe) have a tank every 100 feet on each side of the road. That stopped the ambushes. There is a lot mre to the discussion. I hope we get it straight. As you noted, people are dying.

Brian Hart: Keep in mind that gun trucks became a standard way of supporting convoys. My friend Tommy Masch is an antique gun truck collector and he was an early advocate for armoring them along the lines done in 1968.

The army and marines like to say that they couldn't have anticipated the conflict and the ambush of convoys. That is boloney. Vietnam was a classic example.

Convoys got ambushed and that meant that armor had to protect them and gun trucks had to be armored and weaponized. Instead of reverting back to plywood and then single plates of steel, we should have gone right to the third generation gun trucks of Vietnam with double sided steel walls with sand in between and blast shields and multiple machine guns and lots of metal. They were ugly as sin by fought great.

It became so bad that Tommy Masch from upstate New York sent me photo copies of armoring diagrams and we were emailing them to soldiers in Iraq in late 2003 and early 2004. Young lieutenants like one in Rhode Island had their dad's engineering firms drafting cad/cam drawing for improved designs and we were emailing or mailing them to other units. The military simply dropped the ball and its was improvised individuals that picked up the slack. Drives you nuts.

There are some marked differences between the Vietnam and Iraq situation however. For one thing the terrain is so open and large in Iraq that foot patrols simply are not viable.

Also we are frankly not deploying tanks for convoy support in Iraq because they cost more. We could field more Armored Scouting Vehicles at about $600K but that program was canceled in 2003 and then restarted from scratch at Textron in 2004. One wonders why we aren't flying helicopters and even Cessnas as spotters over the convoys to id ambush sites and IED triggermen.

Another big difference is the sheer number of artillery shells and mines that went unguarded and are now in enemy hands. Hundreds of ammo dumps, 8-10 million land mines in Iraq just waiting to be used.

For $150 you can buy an IED in Iraq and take out a convoy truck full of Marines or fuel. We are putting up $225,000 M1114s or more expensive equipment against mines wired with trip wires or cellphone detonators. Guys with Radio Shack light beams can overwhelm our electronic jammers (because they are light activated). Even infrared TV remotes beat the electronic jammers and dead on accurate - the thing that dings when you walk into a retail store does just fine when connected to a mine(s).

We can't economically and materially sustain this disparate cost of combat.

Our vehicles that should normally have a 13 year life are wearing out in Iraq in about 2 years! The entire ground fleet for the Army and Marines is going to have to be replaced and that isn't in the budget! Think about the implications of this.

To make matters far worse, the insurgents can change tactics every few months. It is taking us on average 14 months to field a defined equipment need in Iraq which comes months after that need is apparent to the infantryman. So it takes us about 2 years to respond to an enemy that can change tactics every quarter. We will lose like that. We will lose to our own slow bureaucracy.

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Sanibel, Fla: Congratulations to both of you. If you watched Andy Rooney last night on "60 Minutes," he provided the answer to why our troops aren't getting what they need to protect themselves and their lives. He reminded us of President Eisenhower's 1961 prescient warning about the power of "the Military/Industrial complex." That's what your story was all about: $350 million F-22s that will never be flown in harm's way over Iraq, and $5 billion WWII aircraft carriers, neither one of which addresses IED's, which we can't counter. The defense lobby (of which I was once a part, but wasn't ever anywhere so imbued with personal greed) owns the White House and the Congress -- totally, including much of the media -- including the Washington Post (check ad revenue). Keep up the fight. Maybe $50 million/year defense company CEO's will donate some of their ill-gotten wealth for body armour -- but only for a tax write-off.

April Witt: I think these days it's more accurate to talk about the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex. That really captures the current reality better.

Brian Hart: The military industrial complex was a fantasy I thought 3 years ago. Was I ever WRONG! It's real and it causes nuclear subs to be built when that same money could have put body and vehicular armor on all most all the soldiers and marines in Iraq.

I know I'm a little guy with a little company, but I can move fast. I can make stuff economically and mass producible. This approach won us WWII.

But that isn't the approach used today.

The military industrial complex makes equipment deployments 17 year programs (on average!). Unbelievable but true.

The Cold War broke the procurement system. The current procurement system does what it was built over the cold war to do - make money for contractors, get jobs for congressmen and glory for generals. It had and has nothing to do with WINNING a real war.

A classic case is the "pull through" production cycle used today. A field officer in Iraq issues a request; the request slowly moves through the bureaucracy then waits for funding (6months) then gets produced and send into Iraq. This pull through approach works great in peacetime because it keeps overproduction from happening. But in wartime, it fails. It guarantees TOO LITTLE TOO LATE. The enemy has a say in things and they blow stuff up and equipment wears out. This means we are always producing behind schedule and behind needs. If on the other hand we opened the production pipeline, put civilian industry to work on a high priority footing this type of problem would disappear almost over night as it did when the Army multi-sourced body armor to get it out the door (a year later).

You see, the problem is that the problem - a broken and corrupt procurement system - a/k/a the military-industrial complex isn't being fixed! That is where I hold Rumsfeld and the Congress in such low regard. They are simply not fixing the problem. Body armor, ammo, tourniquets, retrofit armor and so on - those are the SYMPTOMS of a broken system.

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Danville, Calif: Thank you, April, for a well-written report. We desperately need more of these in-depth media reports to point out the sacrifices and suffering the Iraq war has been inflicting on ordinary folks like the Harts. Do you know the equipment situation in Iraq has improved? Or efforts by the Harts are all in vain? How can we help other than writing to our incompetent representatives?

April Witt: Thanks for your remarks. The equipment situation in Iraq has certainly improved. The military eventually managed to field the several thousand armored huvees and Interceptor vests to give our soldiers and Marines and more reasonable chance of surviving. However, the systemic flaws that led to the equipment shortages in the first place remain. One of the biggest problems is that the military procurement system is lethally slow to respond. It took as much as 18 months of war to solve some of these problems. Meanwhile soldiers died without. The military is trying to streamline the process. The military should not take all the blame for the problems. There are many dedicated patriots in the pentagon, and on the firing line, who would tell you that the system would serve the troops and taxpayers better if congressmen and lobbyists didn't work, in some cases, to pad the Pentagon budget with expensive things that don't make the troops or the nation safer.

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Philadelphia, Pa: I'm appalled at how our fighting men and women have been neglected and am ashamed that I have not paid enough attention to this - until I read this moving article. What can I do? Surely I will write to my elected representatives. But is there another way for me to help?

Kate

April Witt: I'm interested that you did not realize this problem existed until you read my story. You are not alone. Many people have told me the same thing, which surprises me somewhat. Many journalists have done excellent stories on equipment shortages - and I mentioned some of their work in my piece. What I suspect is that with the steady drumbeat of distressing news from the war, many people are overloaded and to some degree tune out. I hope the narrative form of the magazine story, weaving the Harts' story with the overview of system ills, made this very complicated topic easier to focus on and understand. I can't be in the position of suggesting ways that you can advocate. Perhaps Brian can weigh in on that. But there are all kinds of groups working to improve conditions for soldiers. One good way to get keyed in is to google "Soldiers for the Truth." They are a group that advocates for soldiers and exposes problems. They'd be a great place for you to start.

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Oceanside, NY: Thisis the saddest story I have ever read, and I'm 71. I'm on a fixed income and there's no way I can pay to armour a Humvee, but I would be happy to donate to the government $1000 for tourniquets so that fine men like Lt. Bernstein can be saved. Are there any programs that available for those wanting to do this?

My heart goes out to Lt. Bernstein's family for their truly heartbreaking and unnecessary loss. Can you tell us what honors Lt. Bernstein was awarded for his valor? Thank you very much.

April Witt: I didn't mean to depress you. You are kind to care. I think the tourniquet problem has been solved, by the way. If you have internet access, you can google "tourniquet and Robert Little" to find out more. He's the Baltimore Sun reporter who has followed the tourniquet problem more closely than any other journalist I've come across.

Brian Hart: Sir thank you. Yes there is. My friend Dorine Kenny from Long Island. She has been pushing real hard to get blood clotting agents (to stop bleeding) to the soldiers. She bought a bunch herself and sent it over last week. She has also been pressuring the army and congress to fund more of this. She may have been successful as she emailed me this morning that slowly progress is being made.

These kits aren't expensive - around $25 bucks online from Ranger Joes and so on. Government pricing is much less. Dorine has got it figured out.

I don't want to send Dorine's email out to the world but if you will e-mail me at brianhart59@hotmail.com I will send it to you.

Dorine's son Jacob Fletcher and his friend Minucci both bled out from an IED attack in Nov. 2003. We families sort of stick together. Dorine is a saint. It would be an honor if you could help her. Not a penny would be wasted.

David Bernstein was awarded the Silver Star.

John Hart received a Bronze Star for his actions that night and in a series of prior combat engagements.

Specialist Joshua Sams really deserved recognition but the whole event was embarrassing for the Army and when I went public with my criticism it seems that all official records went missing. How a silver star could be issued (deservedly) without a formal after action report defies imagination. When I got an informal report from the Captain, it was full of - well let's call it self serving inaccuracies that explained why John was never recognized for holding off the insurgents from the rear of the convoy. The captain claimed John was killed by shrapnel (not true) and that Chris Williams picked up John's machine gun and emptied it fighting off the insurgents once the vehicle crashed. That wasn't true either except for the part about the weapon being empty. Chris told me at John's funeral and again for the record in this article that he didn't shoot and both he and Sams, the only two survivors and eye witnesses for over 10 minutes during the battle that no firing happened after the vehicle left the road. The firing the captain heard in the distance was John on his machine gun against the dug in insurgents. He evidently fired until empty (per Sams, Williams and Mayville) and when he ran out he was shot in the neck, then the vehicle crashed. They were left alone for a long time and David bled out then despite the best efforts of survivors. The vehicle was evidently riddled.

I want it said for the record, that PFC Chris Williams did an exemplary job escorting John Hart's body to Arlington. As hard as it must have been for him, he did it with honor and grace. For a man too young to buy a beer and a man who had been through at least six engagements where he fought hard and with distinction, Chris Williams was and is a good man. The reason I went down to Arlington early was to talk to Chris. The Sgt who escorted David to West Point told me what happened with Chris and that he was a good man, so I went to talk to Chris early. Chris told me the truth from the get go, unflattering as it was for him, but he did. That the Captain would errantly report the records and I'm told but have not confirmed that he received a valor award because of it makes me sick. I thought higher of west point officers. What to do?

The article implies that I sought some higher award for John. That is not true. I ask for nothing. I merely wanted to know why someone else received his recognition for valor.

John Hart is buried in Arlington, section 60 with the others from Iraq and Afghanistan. We go there when we can. It is beautiful. We have some friends from the adjacent soldiers. One mom pours beer on their graves every St. Patrick's Day. Another tends flowers, and photos. Putting John in Arlington was a decision we will never regret. He would have wanted it.

David Bernstein is buried at West Point. His parents Richard and Gail are in Tennessee now and his sister and brother are wonderful individuals in their own way.

Not a day goes by that we do not think of them.

That the integrity of the officer above them is questionable is not their fault. They died as they lived with bravery and honor.

So be it.

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Washington, DC: What a sorry, sorry situation.

I live in DC not far from Walter Reed and know that every winter appeals go out for warm clothing, blankets, shaving kits, etc., for the wounded service personnel being treated at that facility. While not life threatening, this, too is an outrage.

Where are the gazillions of dollars being spent on this -censored] war going? Is there any way we taxpayers can direct our tax dollars for tourniquets, body armour, and the like.

My condolences to the Harts and other families mentioned in the article. I am praying for all of them as well as those still caught up in this ill-advised and unwinnable war.

Brian Hart: You're absolutely right.

My friend Diane Saucier, a chaplains wife, can help get your indirect contact with those that provide clothing and backpacks, etc. for returning wounded.

Patti Patton-Bader that runs www.brandonblog.com also can help. She is one heck of an organizer.

I know of no way to fund tourniquets and so on directly with tax dollars but tax deductible dollars is something else. Go to Patti's site she has directly links to organizations, usually started by families like ours. Wounded Warriors just put out a call for help again for wounded at Landstuhl.

What I'd highly recommend is providing frequent fliers and other financial support to the wounded soldiers' families who try to visit them at Walter Reed from around the country. Many of them have become impoverished as rehab is extended and the bureaucracy lacks the personal touch of a friend.

Strangers can be friends we've learned.

The unexpected kindness of strangers has left a lasting impressions on us about the overwhelming goodness of the average American.

How can we organize to help others I wonder? Is it really that hard?

The bureaucracy wants us to feel powerless to function without them, but truth be told from Iraq to 9-11 to Katrina, what really works is volunteers willing to devote their time and hard earned dollars to making a difference.

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Church Hill, Md: This a.m. on C-span, the guest said he had read this article and it was a "poignant" story of a family's loss. I too had read it and had a different view. I thought it was a right-on expose' of how incompetent our government including our defense department is. My thoughts went to Katrina and the southern border as two more examples of incompetence. What was your view as you wrote this--was it simply a matter of telling the Hart's story?

April Witt: Thanks for your comment. I'd like the think you are both right. I certainly hoped to both move readers with the Harts' personal loss - and the activism it spurred - as well as explain to readers the systemic problems that left many soldiers and Marines ill-equipped and unprotected.

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Boston, Mass.: April

I bet "even you didn't know" that this article would turn to be exemplary. Outstanding work of information gathering and presenting in an easy to understand way. A two part question for Mr. Hart! How he feels about slogans like "support our troops" and no action. And if he would join Cindy Sheehan's efforts. Thanks.

Brian Hart: "Support the Troops" is a great bumper sticker which means nothing without action.

A word without action is hypocrisy.

I find most of the bumper stickers and yellow ribbons on minivans in our area to really mean - "I'm glad your son is over their so ours won't have to."

People have to do something. We have to think and take responsibility for the welfare of others, our soldiers, by our actions. If our soldiers need equipment then we should be relentless in getting it to them. If that means sacrifice, if that means more taxes and less yellow humvees then so be it. It's just too easy to send someone else's son to war.

We have to demand action, accountability from our generals, from our politicians, from ourselves!

It is just too easy to turn the channel, watch Michael Jackson trials and American Idol and not think about what is going on. Two or three killed in action daily times seven wounded each and every day on average is what we face. They are our responsibility. We sent these soldiers there and damn it we need to support them now and in the future.

Alma whose good works are understated in this article because of a need to focus on a few issues is a strong believer in supporting returning veterans, the wounded and surprisingly now the homeless. Veterans Affairs is going to have its funding CUT under current budget plans in coming years to cut the deficit in half. This is a crime. How can supporting the troops and buying campaign ads reconcile with this gross injustice.

The VA budget is going to have to rise and a lot. To not budget the needs of returning veterans and their long term physical and mental needs is just a sacrilege in our humble opinion.

As to Cindy. Well Alma and I met her and ended up debating her in July 2005. The public person is quite different form the private person - the gold star mother we met. This was before she went to Crawford. She has more guts than Colin Powell, I'll say that. She was willing to put herself on the line do take the hard road - he wasn't. She probably has more guts than brains based on her visit to Venezuela and so on. We disagree on some things. Like I don't think cutting off funding to soldiers in the field is right. It only leaves some PFC like John without ammo or armor. I'd rather see the Congress address head on the War Powers Act, but since I just lost that discussion last week with the vote in favor of an extension perhaps I missed the bigger picture. At this point in my life, I choose to agree with people where interests are in common. She strongly supports the wounded, the need for better equipment and training. On that we agree and chose to leave it at that.

People in power are afraid of grass roots activists because they cannot control them - control is power. That is why folks like Cindy and us (about as middle class as you can get) scare them.

They should be afraid. They are afraid of democracy in action. This is why Rove and others want to create wedge issues, to divide the overwhelming middle of the country that wants to see good government, to see integrity restored to our military and to see that our soldiers, our sons have the equipment they need to survive.

Direct action equals power.

So don't be afraid. Do something.

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The Pentagon; Washington, D.C.: Your story details in over 9,500 words the problem the Army and Marine Corps faced in 2003-2004. Why did you not mention military efforts to solve the problem from 2004-2006? Even with needed safety testing and manufacturing, the Army now has over 26,000 armored HUMMWVs in Iraq. You also didn't mention that Soldiers in battlefront Infantry units were equipped with personal body armor in 2003 and that today the Army has fielded three different variations of Interceptor Body Armor - now amounting to over 700,000 sets.

April Witt: I don't believe that's correct. The story doesn't say the military didn't solve the body armor and vehicular armor shortages. It says - which is absolutely accurate - that it was really, really slow to solve these problem. It doesn't serve the troops or taxpayers not to publicize problems with your procurement system and/or budget priorities. There is no doubt that the military had a Herculean task in equipping itself after the fact. And many fine professionals worked hard to make that happen. It just took them more than a year - a period in which soldiers and Marines died who might have otherwise lived. From my perspective, the hard truths in this story help people in the Pentagon who are working for reforms.

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Seattle, Wash: Question to Brian Hart: As our government chose the timing of the war, and persumably knew what equipment was available, it is obvious that we can't count on them to protect our troops. What can we do, as individuals, to see that our troops have all they need? I want them home now, but what can I do for them in the mean time? If I have a dollar extra, I'll give it. I just don't know who to trust with my dollar.

Question to reporter(s): Why has the coverage of this been so scarce? By ignoring it, you are all equally as guilty as those making the decisions in the pentagon. Equally. That aside, this was an extremely informative, detailed article. Wonderful, beautiful job.

Comment to Brian Hart: I don't believe I have ever respected anyone more. To take such mind numbing grief and turn it into such positive action for the benefit of others, you and your wife are true patriots and heroes.

April Witt: I'll let Brian field most of this question. But as to the press: reporters have done excellent stories on equipment failures in Iraq. They have been hard news stories, not narratives like my magazine piece. It was certainly my hope that I could use the narrative form to make this complicated story more understandable. If I did that, I'm happy.

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Halethorpe, Md: I can't imagine anyone readingt his article without becoming both discouraged and enraged.

Bottom line, what can be done? More money?? Redirected money?? (away from "the bridge to nowhere" and similar boondogles for starters)

I'm a layperson, have never been an activist, but it just seems unreal that, given the billions of dollars we have spent on this war, we lose people like Lt Bernstein for lack of a $20 tourniquet.

If we write our elected officials, what should we say?

April Witt: I think Brian should answer this one since he's an activist who has learned how to be effective and not merely dissolve into grief and anger. Brian, please weigh in.

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Washington DC: I want to extend my sincere condolences to the Hart family. I feel awful that your son was just a young man when he died. I had such a strong emotional reaction when I read the article that saying how sorry I am is the least I can do. sincerely, Paul L

Brian Hart: Thank you. The best thing we can do is to honor the living with actions that benefit them. John was the type of kid that weakes ones went to when a bully was after them. That other comrades might benefit from his sacrifice would be for him the highest honor.

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Somewhere in Missouri: (For Brian)

"You go to war with the Army you have" Rumsfeld

"We have what we have" Schoomaker

"It is what it is" Britney Spears

Can't our top military leaders come up with better answers than a pop queen who doesn't know any better than to drive around with a baby in her lap? Come to think of it, there may be more similarity here than meets the eye. Shouldn't providing the proper gear for war be as elementary and basic as buckling a baby in a car seat before going for a drive?

Brian Hart: If Rumsfeld had just said, I'll going back to Washington and redouble our efforts to correct this problem, he would have been a hero but instead he was arrogant and is now a bum.

The problem with Rumsfeld is that in 2004 he lost the trust of Congress to spend money appropriately; that's why they marked almost all the $25 billion supplemental to specific programs. To keep him and Wolfowitz he sent to ask for it from diverting it.

I realized then that without the trust of the congress he was useless. He needs to resign on whatever terms he can.

Without that trust he is an ineffective leader of the Pentagon.

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Baltimore, Md: Thank you for a great article on the issues/state of light armor availability for US Forces. As a scientist whose PhD is based on developing a light, inexpensive armor that could protect troops from attacks by all types of threats: IEDs, armor piercing, RPGs and even verse multi-hit ballistic rounds better than any current armor (results from Army field testing), and can be easily formed into complex shapes for vehicles or even for use by people I thought that this armor was a no-brainer, sure thing to be funded. However, I was wrong. Not because these people don't care (they really do) but thinking outside the box is not how one survives in a government agency -- a battlefield is an abstract concept for most people until it touches them.

April Witt: Thanks so much for your comment. From what I've learned in reporting this story, you are right on when you say the bureacratic mindset is a big factor. The soldier on the front line says give me what I need to fight and win NOW. If it's not perfect, send it anyway. Just give me the best you've got. Bureaucrats are much more risk-averse. They want to study everything elaborately so they don't make mistakes. That's understandable in human terms. It's not practical in war.

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Alexandria Va: I'm a non-activist, average federal government worker who feels like I need to have bake sales and car washes to buy food and vehicle armor for the troops. What can we really do?

April Witt: One thing you might do is volunteer at Walter Reed. Thousands of young men and women who went to war with hearts full of love for their country have been maimed - and their lives changed forever. One person can't solve the complicated problems of the military-industrial-congressonal complex. But one person can visit a dejected soldier, make sure he or she small items they need, try to advocate for and comfort them.

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Washington, DC: Excellent article, I admire Brian for the important work he has done and offer sympathy to him and his family for the loss of his son. I'd like to ask about the fall-out between Brian and his family in Texas. Is the situation still the same? How could an allegiance to a President, whoever he is, be more important than family connections? Even if they disagree with Brian's politics, I can't imagine this would cause families to no longer speak to each other. Surely they can see his point of view given his experience. Do they know the President personally? Are they friends with him? That is the only reason I can come up with to possibly excuse their behavior. Yes, there are two sides to every story - but some things are just black and white... and personally I feel like this is one of those instances. Good luck, Brian.

Brian Hart: You may be right. Sometimes we are too close to the fire to understand the bigger picture.

I've come to conclude that party politics is about dividing people instead of bringing out their greater good.

When my cousin tried to give Cheney a handwritten letter at a fund raiser they paid big bucks to attend in Abilene, he refused to take it.

Sad to say she was just trying to make sure he was aware of the armor issue. This was in 2004.

In retrospect I guess she should have put a check on top of it.

My family in Texas did incredible work to get wounded soldiers clothes and goods during November 2004. By the thousands of dollars, they organized churches and took action. Unfortunately the article didn't mention these good works.

They also tackled senators there and so on in airports and cars to make sure they knew what was going on with regard to armored humvees.

That we have grown apart over politics and perhaps the perspective on the war in Iraq is a great sadness to me as I love them dearly.

They are great people and I cringed when I read the line in the article because I felt it does them a disservice.

That said, blind faith in political leaders is still blind. I am more of an eyes open guy to wonder and uncertainty than closed by faith. In my sense this is the great betrayal of the public trust.

Who would possibly have believed in 2000 that GW Bush would ever send us into a war on false pretense in Iraq? I didn't I drank the Koolaid and thought he was an honor, inarticulate but good hearted Christian man. When Powell gave his speech I believe him.

I was wrong on both counts. It has taken me a long time to admit it, and them even longer, but the facts speak for themselves.

We can't accept faith over facts in time of war.

I love them dearly and as I said I cringed at the statement

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Detroit, Mich: Do you think issues such as body armor would have been different if we had gone to war the way the military would have wanted? From what I have read Rumsfeld overruled generals on issues of number of troops, etc.

April Witt: Certainly, there were generals in the system who said we needed more troops and more equipment. Saying that in public did not enhance there careers. But there were plenty of generals who fell in line and didn't buck. I quote Gen. Myers telling congress we were absolutely prepared for war. We absolutely were not, which soon because obvious. So generals have a share of the blame in this. So do their congressional overseers who didn't complain about all the troops didn't have until we were already at war.

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Lyon, France: Sir,

To be 100 percent clear, you are actually struggling to

understand why the United States went to war without the

armor that would have enabled your son to kill more

people instead of being killed.

That is what you are doing sir.

He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.

April Witt: Hmmm. Maybe the story didn't translate.

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Washington, DC: thanks to brian and alma (and april) i appreciate their going ahead despite the disillusionment and discouragement. every part of this war stinks, from the reasons for it, to our lack of preparation at level of the individual troops. i also often think, "oh if they just understood the problems, people in power would do the right thing" how appalling that this is not the case. i believe commanders and generals should lose their jobs over this and feel that the president and his advisors need to immediately fix the situation or withdraw the troops. they should also be scrutinized and questioned, and prevented (at the least) from getting us into such situations.

Brian Hart: I thought for about six months it was a great misunderstanding -- if only Bush and Cheney knew.

But when the FY05 budget came out in Feb 2004 and it had nothing budgeted for body armor and an actual decrease in M1114 armored humvee production, I knew it wasn't a mistake.

It was a game with other families' sons and their lives.

That changed me for ever.

I call it my Oliver Twist moment - when I realized it was a lie and "please sir may I have another" just wasn't going to get the job done.

My faith in Bush disappeared at that moment. He just lied and after his state of the union speech that year about getting them the equipment they needed, I realized that it wasn't a misunderstanding, but cold blooded economics and politics.

That's when I went to war.

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Boston, Mass: April/Mr. Hart Thanks for answering my questions. Mr. Hart it appears that you are in particular not happy with the General (Powell). Did the 19th century fox news network ever invited you to discuss your mission.

Thanks

Brian Hart: We've been on Fox a couple of times.

The last time was right after Rumsfeld's you go to war with the army you have speech.

We went on the air and told Fox that the plant actually handn't gotten an order for more production as was implied by the prior friday afternoons puff piece from the Pentagon. We told them that in fact they had merely shifted production by one months and not bought any more units which was the key.

The producer told us that they didn't want us to talk like that because it would upset families of soldiers in Iraq who watched their show. That it would make them worry.

I couldn't believe it. We said it anyway and challenged them to investigate and prove us right or wrong. That was the Tuesday afternoon after Rumsfeld's speech which was on Thursday the prior week.

They accepted the challenged but did nothing. They didn't research the report.

In the back room we heard two technicians talking. They said, "armored humvees again? That's so last week"

We went home. There was nothing more to say.

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From Mass. to D.C.: As a long-ago editor of the Bedford Minuteman (probably well before you and your family moved to Bedford), I would like to express my condolences about your son.

I know that Bedford has been rather divergent in its views for a long time -- for example, in the 1984 election the town voted for both Reagan and John Kerry. I always attributed that to the presence of large defense contractors in town -- people knew where their paychecks were coming from.

How is Bedford treating you and your family these days? Would you stay after your daughters finish school (if they're still in school)?

Brian Hart: Bedford has treated us great. We have lived here since 1989 though I can't shake the accent of living 30 years in Texas.

The high school is 1/4 mile from Hanscom Air Force Base and the town has a great ROTC program and a rifle team. Quite a bit different in some regards from these other small towns.

Yes we like Beford though occasionally we get into discussions.

Fact is they are pretty tolerant of disparate views and the colonial sense of local town government, town meetings and civil discussion is actually inspiring.

It is a shame that such civil discourse and debate for the betterment of all is not carried on in Congress or especially the Senate any more.

We are after all Americans first.

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Leesburg, Va: 1. In the beginning of the article you mentioned that the French troops were equipped with better body armor than our soldiers? Did the Pentagon consider to evaluate/price and possibly purchase from the French supplier? 2. Who in the Pentagon is responsible for awarding the contract to DHB?

Brian Hart: That is a good question. To my knowledge didn't though much of the raw material for vests comes from china and germany.

Ask Roger Charles at soldiers for the truth. www.sftt.org he is a wonderful and informed guy.

steel shortages for armor to which I am more informed could have come from allies to fill the void, Korea, Canada, NATO but we didn't tap those sources short of a small plant in Canada. It was a crying shame as soldiers died by the hundreds because of this archaic contracting process.

WE in fact never turned on the foundry at Rock Island mothballed specifically for this purpose. It would cost too much. Criminal in my opinion.

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Reston, Va: I think that perhaps because we are not using a draft for the war, we aren't seeing as much of a protest from people.

Personally, I feel that if the Congress had been forced to declare war on Iraq, this NEVER would have happened. Using a "military action" or supporting NATO as opposed to a "war" gives the Presidency way too much power in who dies.

Brian Hart: I agree.

Where I think Congress has let the public down is not issuing a declaration of war. Forcing total registration, conscription and taxes accordingly.

WE made it too easy to send others to war.

We didn't commit the country.

If we had we probably would have won this thing.

You've got to wonder why this great country can't get simple armored car production up to meet the needs of a country at war. We made 50,000 Sherman tanks in WWII for God's sake.

It's about hiding the cost of war and depending on the sacrifices of familiies facing triple rotations to Iraq while the wealthiest 5 percent get whopping tax cuts that just wrong.

The country can't shouldn't fight a war without sacrifice from all.

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Richmond, Va: Hats off and kudos to both you, April and Brian, for a fabulous but, oh! so sad and infuriating article. My son's best friend was shot in the back while administering first aid to his dying 1st Sgt. after they both gave up their vests to other platoon members. Daily, my heart aches for all of us in the military family. We're the ones who have been tricked the most by our government, the very ones who felt the duty while others shunned the call to serve. It's so gauling that Sen. John Warner won't do something, as chair of the Armed Forces Committee, but he's a party hack with a big title, concerned more about his courtly image and holding the Senate than protecting our kids. Those of us with kids who've been to Iraq and come back breathing, only through the grace of God, know firsthand the damage this war has wrought on our armed services and the nations defense. Our so-called leaders in Congress will learn soon enought what this all means when they are forced to initiate a draft. I look forward to that day.

April Witt: Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. Obviously, this topic has drawn an emotional response. What has moved me most has been accoutns of soldiers and Marines again and again acting with valor, irregardless if they were given the best tools with which to do their job. Regarding Sen. Warner, I certainly don't think it's fair to call him a hack. You can fault many congressman for not doing more befoer the war started to truth-squad what the military brass and civilian leadership were saying about our preparedness. But after we went to war and the shortages became obvious, congressman worked hard to rectify the situation.

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Madison, Wis: Excellent article, I am sending a care package to Iraq through the www.anymarine.com web site. What are some other things that you think would be helpful to our soldiers in the war? In what ways can we more effectively lobby our congressmen to provide adequate equipment to the troops? What else can people here do to fight the bureaucratic mismanagement in Washington?

Keep up these excellent stories. Thanks.

Brian Hart: Do exactly what you are doing.

Write your congressman more. He could probably use a spine.

Look at a couple of the other posts as I list a number of agencies and groups I recommend working or supporting.

Brandonblog.com is excellent run by Patti Patton-Bader and www.sftt.org is a superb source of knowledge on this issue and ongoing support of soldiers at the tip of the spear.

I'd also encourage you to engage withthe local national guard units. Help their families out directly. A small amount can go a long way. Just making rent, simple things like fixing a deployed families flooded basement is a huge morale booster.

Also I recommend donating frequent flier miles to families of the wounded who want to go see them at Walter Reed.

Alma volunteers for homesless shelters for vets and at the VA. The VA is where the cost of this war is ultimately going to settle.

Volunteer. Learn to play bridge with the old guys. Help someone returning from the national guard units get a job. 40% have lost theirs. The employers are just wearing out with multiple deployments.

Bureaucrats try to lull us to sleep because they are afraid of us. We want ACTION. They do not.

They want you to think you can't get something done without them.

We know better. We don't ask for excuses for ourselves and we don't accept them from them.

Push.

Democracy in action is a very powerful thing.

It's not about party affiliation. It's about waking up and doing the right thing.

If we work together it will make a difference.

The National Guard families organized informally with us over the Internet to lobby congressmen about armor. The Pentagon failed to account for the fact that so many National Guardsmen in their thirties and so on were vocal and active. Many were retired cops. They weren't 19 year olds that were told to lump it.

Political activism from the national guard is a huge untapped resource for getting troops what they need.

it also so happens that the NG is almost always short changed on equipment.

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Anywhere USA: Just a comment. I started crying too much to be be able to finish reading this story. This only adds to the "Is It 2008 Yet?" feeling. And to think this war propably would not have begun if the election of 2000 had a different outcome in Florida and Ohio. I am extremely sorry that I voted for Bush in 2000--but I did not make the same mistake in 2004.

My sympathies go out to the Hart family and friends.

Brian Hart: People vote for individual Congress people.

My guess is that the House and Senate will remain republican in 2006. 2008 might be different.

Democrats though are too complacent. They think they will win by default.

Well people can't vote for "none of the above" as a policy in Iraq.

I feel that until one or both the houses have a different party in control, the nonesense will continue. The wiretaps, the coverups, the fraud. It will only stop with a functioning two party system.

We don't have that.

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Anonymous: My thanks to both of you for this wonderful article. It made me cry and it made me mad.

The War in Iraq made no sense to me from the beginning. My frustration with feeling powerless about it led me to become an active troop supporter through the volunteer site www.booksforsoldiers.com (troops send in requests for books and other care package items that volunteers around the country fill). When I first started volunteering with the site two years ago, I was shocked to see that we were getting requests for the most basic of items -- toilet paper, food (not snack food, but food to supplement MREs), socks, etc. That has changed over time so that most requests now are for comfort and entertainment items (although they still ask for socks!). I guess that's a good sign, but the fact remains that there are still gaps in how well-equipped they are out there.

Once you develop connections with deployed troops, you look at news about the War differently. It becomes personal; people you care about are in danger every day. It's even more frustrating to see how little meaningful attention is actually paid to them (slapping a magnet on your car really doesn't do the job); current policies just make it way too easy to stay disconnected.

I applaud you and your family, Brian, for your courage and action; my thanks to you for your service and that of your son.

(FYI, another good troop advocacy organization is Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America: http://iava.org/index.php)

April Witt: Thanks so much for your comments on the story. More importantly, thanks for your efforts on behalf of the troops. Your response should help a lot of frustrated readers see the kind of small things they can do to help soldiers and Marines in a meaningful way, even if they feel powerless to reform a flawed system.

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Washington, D.C.: The person from Lyon, did have a point, however difficult it was to hear, in the presence of such efforts and persistance on the part of families to right ridiculous and very preventable mistakes on the part of the US government and military leaders. We would not be discussing this right now because we should not be waging this war. Many Iraqi civilians are dying. I don't have any good answers but it is clear that our soldiers are fighting on our behalf, and we are not supporting them. However, they should not be there. We should have tried some non-military action. Whatever, we are there now. And both sides are needlessly in danger. Protect them as we should, but support the troops best by bringing them home.

April Witt: Thanks for weighing in.

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Eugene, Ore: Here's a suggestion: Get a law passed that says every politician who votes for a war MUST either enlist in the active-duty-boots-on-the-ground military or require their son, daughter, nephew or neice to follw the requirement. I'll bet the ratio of wars to rhetoric will subside quickly, don't you?

Brian Hart: Conscription or a tax increase would have the same healthy impact on the general population.

It's just too easy to send someone else to war.

Hiding its cost only makes that easier.

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Richmond, Va: In response to the Pentagon's assertion about armor for forward Infantry Division soldiers, I'd just like to say this. Yes, they did have full BODY armor but they pushed to Baghdad in unarmored humvees with a sandbag in the floorboard for protection. My son was a scout for the 3rd ID out of Ft. Stewart.

Brian Hart: Noting made me angrier than last fall (2005) with third ID redeployed and short of equipment, to learn that 600 or so brand spanking new M1114 armored humvees sat in Kuwait with that new car smell waiting for six months for the 4th ID to shot up in 2006. Third ID and the marines needed that damned equipment. Duncan Hunter went after them in Oct 2005 but the army didn't budge. Criminal really.

But no one is held to account. No general has lost his job over this repeated incompetence.

Until they are held to account, there will be no solution.

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Rockville, Md: "One thing you might do is volunteer at Walter Reed. "

Don't forget Bethesda's Naval Medical center.

Brian Hart: Absolutely. As you know they are merging Walter Reed into it. I think that's a good idea. What's the point of the marines and the soldiers having different hospitals. We're all Americans.

I would also add Brooks down in San Antonio where the burn victims go. Very important.

You would be surprised about the healing power of a friendly touch and the voice of a stranger wanting to help you along.

I have a harder time at Walter Reed than at Arlington where John is buried.

To Larry, and Jason, Tabitha, Nick, Peter there. God bless.

The sooner we get people out of the hospital behind the iron rails in to society the better. The wounded need to konw they have a future, a home in our country, a job.

We can do this but as long as the cost of war, the human cost is hidden, there is nothing for America to respond to.

The military wants people not to worry, not to interfere. They don't want to admit to problems and weaknesses. I think this is wrong. People, Americans, want to help. They need to be told how. Shown how. If there is no problem, there is not help, but we know better. But you have to want to see.

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Washington DC: Question for April: April, your story was powerful in its narrative form and with the details Brian laid out. I hope it gets a lot of coverage. Question: how can we as citizens use the internet and the press to get the facts out in the open and pressure Congress to do the right thing for our citizens and this great country? What are the hopes of turning the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex around? How are reports like you and others being supported or thwarted in bring the truth to light?

April Witt: As a journalist, I can't advise you on how to pressure Congress. I am, by nature, an optimist. But I am not hopeful, in the short-term, that the equipment problems in Iraq will spur massive reforms in the military-industrial-congressional complex. The system as it is may not be working ideally for the foot soldier. But it has made a lot of contractors and their lobbyists wealthy, and some of them have helped congressmen get elected. Leaders within the Pentagon who protest don't go on to have stellar careers. Look at what happened to Gen. Eric K. Shinseki when he said we needed to go in with more troops. Several generals who've retired have recently criticized the way the Administration, and Rumsfeld in particular, conducted the war. But they didn't raise public questions while still in their powerful jobs. This is all to say, the system is set up in a way that it reinforces the status quo. I don't expect anything to change soon without massive public outcry. As readers comments suggest, a lot of the public simply has tuned out the sad news of war.

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Great Falls, Va: Thank you for a story that needs to be told. Nightly news shows do not convey the sense that the body counts they report are due to lack of personal armor and lack of protection for convoy vehicles. The drum beat is about numbers and not that they are numbers because of bureaucratic and political failures as well as inept leadership. It does seem that it is correct to say the military, industrial congressional complex fails to work in favor of the feet on the ground Marine and Soldier. The Business section of the Post printed stories this morning about two subjects which need to be told time and again. One was about the earmarks (a euphemism for pork barrel spending)for a company in Alexandria Virginia. The company apparently is in the business of making thing the Defense Department does not want or need. The other was about local congress people refusing to reveal the earmarks they ask for in the budget. It was, they said, an "internal" matter. It most certainly is a public matter--it is the public's money. I would hope the Post would follow up and make public the pet projects and congrssional sponsers on a continuing basis. The people cannot knew that fighter jets which may never see warfare are in the budget at a cost of 350 million each but meals ready to eat and ammunition and protection for the boots on the ground are not. I think the Post can do the public a great service by naming names on a regular basis.

Brian Hart: You're absolutely right.

Unfortunately much of the budget is boring. It takes effort.

Wireservices don't provide that effort I've found.

Print media is the only media actually willing and able to publish lengthy analysis needed to sort this mess out.

TV carries an impact but no substance. I want to talk about substance on TV but time just doesn't allow. So I often resort to soundbytes on the theory that something is better than nothing.

I refined my statements in 2004 to just humvees. Armored humvees. In Sept I started getting calls from soldiers and their families asking how they could do the same for turcks? I was aghast. Surely they armored the trucks too! but no they didn't. Incredibly they just funded what got publicity. I said huvmees, they funded humvees and not trucks. So we went back on the war path in late 2004 talking about trucks. By Oct when we went to Washington for the anniversary of John's death, Kennedy showed me legislation that wrote in trucks. In January 2005 it was funded. I have felt so badly since then. I should have known, but I didn't. Soldiers died because of that.

Trucks are armored now. at least the armyones and most marines. I truely regret not saying trucks too.

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Newton, Mass: Miss Witt: Regarding the writer from Richmond, VA calling the senator from VA a Hack! I dont think it was fair to the writer by disagreeing with him and defending the senator and giving your own opinion that "it was not fair to call him a hack". Senator is more interested for his public image than anything else.

April Witt: I think that writer made many excellent points in his posting, and I was glad to share them with the public. I'm just personally not fond of name-calling. I don't think it's constructive.

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Congressional Debate Last Week: Brian, what is your reaction to the resolution the House debated last week?

Brian Hart: Pathetic.

This country needs a REAL debate about the war.

I'm no pacificst and had no problem going after Saddam, and then getting out.

But Where IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? Shouldn't al Qaeda, not the rebranded Sunni insurgency in Iraq be the focus of our war on terror?

Should congress filibuster or debate in real terms what the hell our plan is in Iraq? What is the military mission? Don't liberators by definition leave and occupiers stay?

This country needs a real damned debate.

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Silver Spring, Md: Mr. Hart - since you have a Republican background and initially supported the war - I'm curious as to how you see the political angle of this playing out. Would you like to see Democrats take control in November? Do you think a Democrat would do better in 2008? I'm a Republican and as frustrated as I am with the way things are going, I'm not convinced a Democrat would do any better. I feel that both sides are pretty beholden to the defense industry.

Brian Hart: I didn't leave the party. It left me.

Now I have to say that I have been so disgusted with the Repubican party that I will never go back.

I think the middle class has been screed by this administration and is so bad that I've just had enough.

Besides to be candid Sen. Kennedy and Rep. Murtha helped more on equipment issues that the public will ever know. Thousands have equipment because of the back room work these men did. They will never get credit for it.

I think the Democrats can't expect people to vote for "none of the above". They can't make a plan.

I would very much like to see one or both of the houses shift parties. That is the only way to keep people honest in that rotten town.

As to 2008, beats me. I really don't know what to say.

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April Witt: Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my story and who joined us today. Thanks Brian for leading a spirited chat. This topic obviously evokes strong emotions in Brian and in readers. I will close by pointing out that, as always, our guests' comments reflect their personal opinions and not those of The Washington Post.

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