Monday, August 08, 2005

Troops at Risk

The more I read, the more my heart breaks for the families of the soldiers who have been killed in this war. Rumsfeld said something like, "You go to war with the army you have." First, the war in Iraq was an unnecessary war and this administration started this war based on a lie. Second, this administration has done little to protect our young men and women with the proper equipment. Those troops from Ohio that were killed while riding in an amphibious vehicle were at grave risk. Would this president or Rumsfeld send their children or relatives to a war with inadequate materials that would reduce their chances for survival? I don't think they would. Here is something I found that supports this: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/cat_ground_vehicles.html
When Army Secretary Francis Harvey bragged last week that every American vehicle in Iraq was about to be armored up, Defense Tech readers smelled a rat. Maybe what Harvey was saying was technically true, readers figured. But a whole lot of those supposedly toughed-up vehicles would be protected with jury-rigged, "hillbilly armor" -- the kind that's cobbled together from scrap heaps and landfills. Now, the L.A. Times has confirmed vehicles venturing outside bases will have only the makeshift steel plates known to soldiers as 'Mad Max' or 'hillbilly' armor.