Troops lack basic equipment-- two years into war.

It's been months since the dust-up over a soldier grilling Rumsfeld on why they didn't have standard equipment. Rumsfeld hemmed and hawed. The right-wing pundits accused the soldier of being "tricked" by a reporter into smearing the admin by a left-wing nut.

But guess what? The problem is still rampant in Iraq, and it has to be rectified. But don't mind me-- I'm just being anti-American by undermining the president's authority. And, I guess, so are the Marines. Why do they hate freedom?

The [Marine Corps' inspector general's] report, obtained by the Globe, says the estimated 30,000 Marines in Iraq need twice as many heavy machine guns, more fully protected armored vehicles, and more communications equipment to operate in a region the size of Utah. . .

The Marine Corps' mission, among the most difficult of the 140,000 American troops in Iraq, is to help stabilize a huge swath of Iraq where popular support for the insurgency is highest and where more sophisticated enemy tactics have been introduced, including larger and more effective improvised explosive devices, the roadside bombs that are the single biggest killer of American troops in Iraq.

But the report says that about a quarter of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force's Humvees lack sufficient armor to protect troops against roadside bombings, including 1,000 vehicles that have yet to be fitted with armor plates to protect the undercarriage.