Democrats trying to look tough on national security have been engaged in a sustained, concerted effort to make a supposed lack of “body armor” for the American troops in Iraq into a political issue. It’s become a standard Democratic talking point. In January, Senator Clinton wrote to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee that, “disturbing press reports about inadequate body armor suggest that lives may have been needlessly lost because of inadequate equipment.” ABC News quoted her as calling it “unforgivable.” Earlier this month, Senator Feinstein of California marked the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion by claiming that the Bush administration “sent our troops into battle without body armor.”

Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York issued a report last month claiming, “American soldiers and their families don’t know if they are going to have the body armor and other supplies they need to fight in Iraq.” The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, last month went on television and accused President Bush of “Sending our troops abroad with no body armor.” The minority leader, Senator Reid of Nevada, claimed in January, “We have a national security policy that protects Halliburton’s bottom-line with no-bid contracts but does not protect our troops with body armor.”

In light of all that, we commend to our readers a dispatch that the Associated Press issued yesterday from Husaybah, Iraq. “Extra body armor – the lack of which caused a political storm in the United States – has flooded in to Iraq, but many Marines here promptly stuck it in lockers or under bunks. Too heavy and cumbersome, many say. “The wire report says, “Marines already carry loads as heavy as 70 pounds when they patrol the dangerous streets in towns and villages in restive Anbar province. The new armor plates, while only about five pounds per set, are not worth carrying for the additional safety they are said to provide, some say.” The AP dispatch quotes Sergeant Justin Shank of Greencastle, Pa., as saying, “We have to climb over walls and go through windows…I understand the more armor, the safer you are. But it makes you slower. People don’t understand that this is combat and people are going to die.”

Staff Sgt. Thomas Bain of Buffalo, N.Y., is quoted by the wire as saying, “Before you know it, they’re going to get us injured because we’re hauling too much weight and don’t have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house…I think we’re starting to go overboard on the armor.” The complaining Democrats no doubt had what they thought were the best interests of the troops at heart. But next time, before Senators Clinton and Feinstein and Reid and Rep. Slaughter and Dr. Dean start trying to clad our Marines in suits reminiscent of the kind in which medieval knights had to be winched onto their horses, they might want to check with the troops first. Sometimes the military knows better than the second-guessers among the Democrats.