Equipment, stockpiles wear thin in Iraq

[Barrett808]

WASHINGTON - The Army's Bradley fighting vehicles and M1 Abrams tanks are eating up the tracks they run on at an astounding rate in Iraq.

Humvee tires are wearing out much more quickly as well, and harsh desert conditions are taking a toll on helicopter blades and engines.

...

"The cost is in the billions. We ate up our stockpiles," Kern said at a recent Pentagon briefing.

...

"Soldiers' quality of life is less than adequate overall. We have guys living in tents in the dirt. The units on the ground are living hard; others are living in air-conditioned palaces," said Maj. Gen. Chris Christianson, the new chief of Army logistics, who was on the staff of Lt. Gen. Dave McKiernan, the ground commander in Iraq during the war.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

(more)

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/6779279.htm

[underpants]

1. Changing Track? We never changed the whole track

Breaking track was tough enough. Maybe they just mean road pads.

I have heard that Bradleys (and their crew) are traveling 1,200 miles a MONTH which is about a year's worth.

[pbeal]

4. the sand is chewing up the pins

its the whole track that is being replaced.

[underpants]

7. Sand or flowers?

Yikes eating up the pins which strips out the tracks. Wow

[pbeal]

8. very small quartz flowers

nm

[drewb]

2. Logistics communications in Iraq were "disastrous," he said.

LOL... They were disastrous at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. Why should it be any different 3000 miles away???

[Don_G]

17. Probably Because

Goodyear and United Defense are located an ocean away in a country that has a road and rail infrastructure.

[el_gato]

3. and so we bleed ever so slowly

this is similar to how the soviets were taken down in afghanistan

[catzies]

9. *Gasp!* Realizing wider implications of what you said...

... :wow:

And we all know what happened next.

[tom_paine]

16. The Soviet Union had by then run it's course

Imperial Amerika is not even fully born yet.

Soviet Citizenry had been lied to mercilessly, repeatedly, ham-fistedly for 70 years. I'm sure there were few people who didn't know that when Pravda or the Soviet Government said ANYTHING, it was a lie.

The Imperial Subjects of Amerika, most of them not realizing that the Old Republic is dying and the Free Press is essentially dead, replaced with Corporate TV Pravda and the Right-Wing Sub-Media, still believe so much of what the aImperial Family says. They will have to be lied to and oppressed much longer before they even approach this level of appropriate cynicism to the Empire of Bushevik Lies.

Finally, the Soviet Union had Gorbachev, and whatever his faults and flaws were, his move towards glasnost (openness) was in fact exactly the opposite of what is going on in the Amerikan Empire (closedness?).

So the conditions that existed in the 1991 Soviet Union that defeated the Communist Coup of Gorbachev were also exactly the opposite of the sheeplike, accepting mindset of Imperial Amerika 2003.

For those reasons "what happened next" in the Soviet Union is unlikely to be what happens next in Imperial Amerika.

For possible outcomes please see histores of:

Rome 50BC
Germany 1936
S. Africa 1947 (of course our apartheid will not be overtly race-based, a tip of the hat to the Old Republic)

[spinbaby]

5. A telling phrase

"...we did not foresee the need to secure all our convoys with Bradleys."

In other words, it's still too dangerous to move in Iraq. Must be all those flowers they're throwing. :eyes:

[Maeve]

6. Patience of Americans also wearing thin

Support our troops by bringing them HOME.

[Ergotron]

11. I'd like to see them come home too..

...but what will become of the situation in Iraq. Is it right for us to leave now?

[Maeve]

12. Oh, we have a responsibility to clean up the mess we've made

But we aren't going to do it the way the misAdministration is heading. I'm coming further and further over to the "get out now" side the more I watch the way we're making a total botch of the process.

[lightbulb]

13. As the Shrub cabal's options dwindle...

It will become clear that their only option is to admit guilt and throw themselves upon the mercy of the UN. They will eventually need to drop their insistence on full US (corporate) control over "rebuilding" and abide by whatever terms the UN deems fair.

[underpants]

14. No we have to stay

The Geneva convention establishes want "occupying forces" are required to do and since Article 6 makes all treaties foreign and domestic the law of the land we have to abide by them. The UN charter (which we did ratify) also has something in there or at least a reference to the Geneva convention.

"Bring them home now" sounds short and sweet and to the point but we can't do that. Of course this was one of the main arguments against the war, not that anyone seems to give a rat's a** in this white house.

[Noordam]

21. Geneva convention what is that and why would Bush

start obeying them now.

[karlschneider]

19. If we left now.......

it would be chaos. Like it is now. There would be fighting in the streets. Like it is now. Some sort of constabulary/government would emerge. Like it is now.

The ugly fact is that it wouldn't be much different except that our young people wouldn't be getting killed daily.

[newyawker99]

10. Barrett808

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

NYer99
DU Moderator

[Barrett808]

15. Sorry, my editing time has expired. Please edit as you see fit.

Thanks.

[Aristus]

18. Changing track is a bitch-and-a-half under the best

of conditions. I can't even imagine what the tankers over there are going through. And now they're running out of necessary supplies? Why the F*CK did those guys vote for the Chimp and Co? People (other than Colon Powell) who have NO military experience whatsoever (and no, the Texas Air Nat'l Guard does NOT count).

[Noordam]

22. hey George pee in this bottle

George George, shit were did he go now.

:evilgrin:

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. The administration doesn't have to have military experience

but it should listen to the generals who do, not sack them for giving an accurate assessment of how many troops would be needed after the war.
FDR didn't serve in the military, as far as I can tell, but he ran WW2 OK.

[teryang]

20. Right we have a legal duty to "occupy" Iraq

...and have our soldiers killed and maimed and our treasury looted by a bunch of carpet bagging thieves.

[Porcupine]

24. Equipment failure kills troops and invites fire....

unfourtunately nobody ever listens to the guys who apply wrenches to tanks, APC's and Hummers. Too bad. The U.S. has already lost this one. Just wait till troops start fragging their officers.

[reprobate]

25. fragging their officers.

I'm surprised that it hasn't started already. Once the troops are pissed enough, and they can't get to von Dumsfeld or Captain Codpiece, they will turn on their officers

What may limit this is the fact that many of the troops are NG or reserves and they are much closer to their officers than regular army.