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04/26/2004 Entry: "I think I figured out the problem..."
I think I figured out the problem...
Someone gave the Bush administration a messed-up dictionary, in which 'support' is defined as 'under-fund, lie to, and screw over in every conceivable manner...'
Five of the Pentagon’s key acquisition officials were called to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to explain why armor to protect troops against IEDs has been so slow in getting to Iraq.Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he is concerned that the Pentagon’s defense acquisition system does not have “the ability to rapidly meet our soldiers’ needs” for force protection, especially protecting convoys against improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs.
“I think you’re going to have a lot of convoys ambushed over there [in Iraq] from here on out,” Hunter said. “I think it’s clear that the IED is the order of the day for the bad guys. And we’ve got to be able to keep steel between our guys and those IEDs.”
Hunter noted that the number of fuel tanker trucks in Iraq “that have been destroyed now by attacks is between 80 and 100.”
Yet the pace of armoring vehicles such as Humvees, and bringing new vehicles with built-in armor, is painfully slow, Hunter said.
It’s so slow that troops on the ground are doing whatever is necessary.
Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, said the 1st AD came to Iraq with some 26 armored Humvees a year ago. Now, with do-it-yourself upgrades, they have about 300. Maybe 300 more remain unarmored, Dempsey said.
The unarmored vehicles “weren’t designed for this exact fight,” he said. “They were designed to be behind the lines.”
But Iraq is a “nonlinear battlefield,” with lethal threats coming at any time and from all directions. Or, as Dempsey puts it: “It’s 24-7, 365, 360 degrees.”
Although IED attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq began in mid-May 2003, it wasn’t until November that the Pentagon had authorized production of armoring kits for vehicles already in Iraq, Hunter noted.
[...]
Steel panels to armor up to 60 gun trucks against improvised explosive devices are languishing on a loading dock in Pennsylvania, while troops in Iraq cobble together homemade plywood barriers in an effort to protect themselves, according to Hunter.
Replies: 2 people speak up
Well, hell, just remember: IOKIYAR.
NOT!
Posted by Michael @ 04/26/2004 12:11 PM NY
first of all, of course it's a nonlinear battlefield. there hasnt been a linear battlefield since WW1. airplanes pretty much destroyed the concept of a "front". When you are fighting a nation that more or less has no viable military, you cant expect your enemies to just line up in rows and charge toward you, this is not the war of 1812, this is ww3.
second of all, i thought that the troops didnt have any armor because of john kerry? oh wait, i need to stop listening to commercials, i mean the news.
Posted by justin @ 04/26/2004 01:37 PM NY
