I forgot to include the link to the story, here it is.
This is absolutely outrageous. Rumsfeld is wasting untold numbers of taxpayer dollars on a public relations stunt visit to Baghdad, and our troops are STILL sitting ducks without the armor they need, even though they've asked for it repeatedly. Why does a soldier have to write to beg local police in the US to scrounge together body armor? If the DOD didn't have any on hand, couldn't our own government check out civilian supplies, rather than leaving it to our own servicemembers to beg for it or die? This article absolutely sickens me. Where the hell is Rush Limbaugh's, Senator Inhofe's, Sean Hannity's, and Faux News' outrage now?
Someone ought to start an online blog-athon, across all of our blogs, to raise money to buy vests that we can ship the troops - we can even contact that Sheriff to see if the money would help him track down more vests and/or ship them. Let's show Bush up on this one.
The Ocala-based U.S. Army Reserve unit helping to pacify Iraq has made an urgent request from the folks back home: send body armor, ASAP.
First Sgt. Fred Chisholm, the top enlisted soldier in the 351st Military Police Company, recently asked Sheriff Ed Dean to round up extra bulletproof vests and ship them to the unit, which was last known to be operating south of Baghdad.
Dean responded on Monday by petitioning his counterparts across Florida and U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, for help....
'It's a shame isn't it? It's hard to believe that we sent our people to this part of the world and they feel like they're not being taken care of,' Crowder said. 'That's troubling. But we support our troops and we'll do whatever we can.'
In a recent issue, Newsweek magazine captured some of what U.S. troops face in dealing with the Iraqi insurgents.
'Despite desperate attempts to supply bolt-on armor, many soldiers still ride around in light-skinned Humvees. ... Brig. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, assistant division commander of the 1st Armored Division, conceded in an interview (that they were) 'never designed to do this. ... It was never anticipated that we would have things like roadside bombs in the vast number that we've had here,' ' the magazine reported.
'Meanwhile, soldiers are rushing to jury-rig their Humvees with anything hard they can find: bolt-on armor, sandbags, even plywood panels, creating what one senior officer calls 'Mad Max-mobiles.' But Pentagon sources say many of the retrofitted Humvees cannot take the extra weight, and their suspension or transmission systems fail.' - Ocala Star Banner
