republican incompetence

When the Republicans sent our soldiers into Iraq without the proper equipment, they made a strategic error that undoubtedly led to higher casualty rates than were necessary. But they also made a political error because our soldiers aren't dumb. They quickly realized that the Republicans bungled the war from the start and that the soldiers and veterans of that war would be the ones to suffer because of Republican incompetence.

This has led to quite a few pissed off veterans getting involved politically, like 1st Lieutenant Paul Rieckhoff of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org.

VoteVets in particular has put our some devastatingly effective ads taking Republicans to task for failing to provide our soldiers with the equipment they needed...like body armor. The latest such ad targets Republican Elizabeth Dole, locked in a very tight race for the North Carolina Senate: