The Bush administration just can't seem to get it right. Several days ago, the Secretary of Defense told the troops that the reason they couldn't provide more armored vehicles was that they couldn't produce them. This appears to be incorrect. The company that the Army contracted with could increase production and other companies could've produced additional vehicles. In almost 20 months the DoD has been unable to meet the needs of our men and women in Iraq.
Department of Defense is also revealed that the maintenance problems caused by the unexpected duration and intensity of the Iraq occupation is creating havoc with the military equipment. Trucks, tanks and aircraft are being utilized 10 times greater than envisioned. The maintenance budget has gone from $1 to $9 billion per year. The Department of Defense has also acknowledged if the war ended tomorrow, it will take the army two years to repair the military equipment and cost untold billions of dollars.
Yeaterday President Bush's highly touted nominee, Bernard Kerik, for Homeland Security Director has been forced to withdraw his nomination because of a whole series of problems in his background. The issues include, troubling evaluations of his style in prior jobs, an undocumented nanny that he employed and investment in a company that was doing business with the Homeland Security Department head the list. How is that the president's staff was unable to to research the background of the Bush choice for Homeland Security Director?
In addition we are having problems with the WTO and George Bush proposes to expand that authority into many of the Central and South American countries. It is clear that the WTO is becoming a superpower telling us what to do with our trade policy and the situation is getting worse and worse. In spite of this, President Bush is pushing to expand our agreements with the WTO. How is it President Bush can not understand that his policies are not working?
The jobs report, the economic outlook and the actions of OPEC to cut production at a time when the price of crude oil is double the OPEC target are more examples where the president has been ineffective in dealing with important issues facing America. Every day makes it clearer and clearer how poor a decision the voters made by reelecting George W. Bush. It will be interesting to watch what happens when George W. Bush embarks on his trip to Europe. I suspect we will see even more examples of how inept and unpopular the president of the United States is throughout the world.