I might be naive, but I am not trying to be tricky.
In a nutshell, what I see is Republicans wanting to continue the war, and Democrats saying they want to end it, but instead of having the backbone to stand up, vote, and end the war, the Democrats have chosen to simply decrease funding.
The Republicans are using this to their advantage, and are trying to say if troops get killed because of decrease funding, its the Democrats fault.
If the Republicans encourage (or order) generals to send inadequately prepared troops into battle, and they know they are inadequately prepared because the Democrats wont fund enough equipment, then it is really the Republicans who are jeopardizing the troops. I dont think the Dems are likely to increase funding, do you? If they don't then, like I said before, our mission and tactics will have to be modified to accomodate the new level of funding.
But maybe the troops are used to having inadequate equipment. Bush went to war with too few troops and too little equipment, so the first half of the war we didnt have what we needed because of him. Now the Democrats are defunding the war, so we dont have what we need now.