what Republicans say is not what they do

The Bush administration and military leaders in Washington are always claiming that they will do anything to support American troops fighting in Iraq. That makes it all the more infuriating to
learn that,for more than two years, they largely ignored urgent requests from field commanders for better armor-protected vehicles that could have saved untold lives and limbs.

Improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, can blast through the flat underbelly of the military's standard Humvees, maiming and killing the soldiers within. These devices, a low-tech response to America's overwhelming military power, are now causing 70 percent to 80 percent of the American combat deaths in Iraq.

More than two years ago, according to newly disclosed documents, Marine commanders in Al Anbar Province, a center of the Sunni insurgency, submitted an urgent request for more than 1,100 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, or MRAPs, that have V-shaped bottoms able to deflect blasts from below. They sat on the request and then ordered relatively few.

Yet all you hear from these Republicans is "Support the troops."