British soldier's widow releases damning Iraq tape

[rooboy]

The widow of a British soldier shot dead in Iraq while not wearing a flak jacket has just released an audio tape made by her husband.

On it, he complains about the lack of proper equipment they had been issued for battle.

Sergeant Stephen Roberts made the tape the night before he died.

Samantha Roberts says she has released her husband's audio diary because she wants the truth to come out.

"He had to give up his personal flak jacket to infantry soldiers because there were not enough to go around," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1026509.htm

[AnnabelLee]

1. I can see the Blathering Blair in my mind's eye

during Prime Minister's Questions, spewing that old platitude that the British military is the best-trained, best-equipped force in the world.

[Leilani]

2. This is tragic

and should be getting media coverage in this country...

Our troops still don't have proper equipment, but billions are being spent.

[Supormom]

23. As the wife of an Army Nat'l Guard officer...

I find these kind of stories to be truly disturbing.

[arcane1]

3. my dad is already trying to pin the flak-jacket shortage on Clinton...

:evilfrown:


apparently it takes THREE YEARS before abything Bush does has any effect. Clinton didn't send those people into war without proper protection, and if he "decimated" the military so badly, then what bold, noble steps did George take since Jan 01 to correct this problem? As far as I know he didn't do one damned thing...

on edit- there is a terrible irony to this story at the end:

"Mrs Roberts also says the Ministry of Defence has confirmed her husband was killed by friendly fire."

:evilfrown:

[rooboy]

5. Ask your dad...

that if the military was so underprepared for war, then WHY DID BUSH SEND THEM IN? We now have PROOF that Saddam Hussein wasn't an imminent threat - this just makes * look even more incompetent.

And will your dad vote for Bush, so that he can send more "unprepared" soldiers to die in Syria and Iran?

[CompXDog]

10. Imminent Threat?

Yeah! But nobody claimed that there was an imminent threat.

[Terran]

12. Pardon? Nobody claimed what?

Nobody claimed Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat? Go back and review the State of the Union speech, friend, and most of the admin's public statements four months prior to that. You'll find many such claims.

[CompXDog]

13. Looking

I am searching Google, could point me to a specific document?

The State of the Union address includes that Saddam is "not an imminent threat" not just "an imminent threat"

Could you cite an actual location?

[Dhalgren]

14. The Dick-Head in Chief said

that we had better get Saddam before he gets us - we don't want the first warning to be a "musroom cloud". Remember that? His lapdog Conti said the same thing. Without "imminent threat" the invasion was illegal, even by you and your's definition.

[bushisanidiot]

17. AWOL May Not Have Said "Imminent" Only Because He Can't Pronounce It

but he led the american people to believe that saddam hussein was going to use his "weapons of mass destruction" against the united states of america any day. dickhead cheney declared on meet the press that he knew "for sure" that hussein had a nuclear weapons program and thus, we "had" to go to war.

you can play word games all you want, but the intent of AWOL and his lying administration was to give the american people reason to believe that if we didn't go to war with Iraq when we did then saddam hussein was going to kill us all.

keep lying to yourself, buddy.. but that doesn't make AWOL's lies become truth.

[Supormom]

24. "Only Because He Can't Pronounce It"

lol !

[wellst0nev0ter]

19. Try This

Bush's October 2002 speech in Cincinnati

How anyone could walk away NOT thinking that Iraq poses a serious and immediate danger to this country.

But I'm sure your response would be "well Clinton said it too!"

[Dhalgren]

15. You parse words better than Big Dog Bill.

.

[louis-t]

18. rush tell you to say that?

use your own brain, man.

[librechik]

22. no they claimed it was WORSE than an imminent threat

but dittoheads are immune to logic and facts, so why do I bother?

[guajira]

27. How many Times did B* say Saddam and 9-11 in the same breath???

Seems like every speech he said things like: we have to get rid of Saddam - we don't want another 9-11.

Ditto heads who never think for themselves would have no problem thinking there was a connection between Saddam and 9-11.

[leesa]

6. But the Pentagon awarded giant bloated contracts to GOP

donors. Plenty of money for that! There was lots of money to be spent but Bush was too busy campaigning to care and Rumsfeld is simply insane.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Except Clinton didn't send anyone into war.

He was bright enough to use his considerable diplomatic skills to get American interests and objectives sucessfully furthered in the forum of international opinion.....

Of course, Bill was not beholden to corporate oil interests and a Party of corrupted war-profiteers and he understood that the blood of Americans should not be shed to satisfy the profits of these special interest groups.

Besides, since we know that Cheney/Bush had been planning their war since the minute that stole office, is your dad saying that flak jackets couldn't be ordered, produced, and shipped in 2 years?

Nah, they just don't really give a shit about the soldiers...they do give a shit about selling out our country and funneling our tax dollars to companies like Halliburton and the Carlyle Group, though.

[Old and In the Way]

9. Correction.

He did send troops to Kosovo...but, in 8 years, he never lost a soldier that he had ordered into battle. Lucky or did he make their safety a priority? Probably a combination of both.

[demconfive]

8. So ask your dad...

What exactly did the military buy with 1.2 trillion dollars over the last 3 years? Nobody in the Pentagon checked on flak jacket supplies for three whole years?!

[UpInArms]

16. they lost

track of $2.3 trillion - that would have bought quite a bit of protective gear -

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29, 2002

(CBS) On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.

He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.

<snip>

"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.

$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.

"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

...more...

[sasquatch]

4. Here's a prediction

American Media won't cover it!!

Our media is too concentrated on Kobe Bryant's penis and not enough on our troops lives.:argh:

on edit forgot to put<'>

[mbperrin]

11. Oh, yes, the "troops" are being supported

at the government level, aren't they?

[wildwww2]

20. The troops are supported. They have to be carried to their bodybags.

By their fellow servicemen don`t they? That sure seems to be the level of our governments support. Do it yourself support and we will get the oil out. Thank you for your life. Your served your countries pre-emptive war bravely.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[Mari333]

21. My stepson took his own helmet and Kevlar vest with him

we made sure of it.

[TheDalaiMama]

25. God...the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth and your stepson

had to take his own helmet and vest. There are no words to explain how that makes me feel.

I'm sorry he has to be in such a mickey mouse army..with mickey mouse as commander in chief...and I wish him a short tour and safe return.


dalai

[IowaBiker]

26. Just remember ...

Those aren't rich Republican trust fund babies out there in the desert. There is no reason for Bush to protect them.

The news I've been getting from the solders on front on how this war is being conducted is very disturbing.

--Brian

[dusty64]

28. Kick!

:kick: