Bush is STILL not adequately equipping the troops in Iraq:

[Lefty48197]

We have learned from many sources how the Bush administration has failed to properly arm and equip the troops they have sent to Iraq, and into harm's way. We have heard stories about the failure to add armor to the human transport vehicles (humvees). We've heard stories about troops that didn't receive personal body armor:

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040513-secdef0747.html

One of the soldiers questioned Defense Secretary Rumsfeld on these very issues last December:
"Q Sir, my unit, the 2nd Brigade -- (inaudible) -- Cav, we have five out of the six red zones in this country. And with the up- armored humvees, the new -- (off mike) -- humvees they're bringing over with the -- (inaudible) -- those doors are not as good as the ones on the up-armored humvees -- (inaudible). We even lost quite -- we lost some soldiers due to them, and we're trying to make a change -- (inaudible). The question is, are we going to get more up-armored humvees?
And the second question I wanted to ask is, they have the new -- (inaudible) -- vests out that covers your -- (inaudible). We need those because we have taken some casualties due to the shrapnel from IEDs going through the side. The front parts are good, but the sides are not."

Even FOX "News" couldn't ignore the story:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101061,00.html
"The only problem with the life-saving equipment is getting hold of it.
Congress has allocated funds for all U.S. troops to wear 16-pound, ceramic-plated Interceptor body armor, but as many as 51,000 American soldiers and civilian administrators in Iraq have not yet been equipped with the gear, and have been asking friends and families at home to purchase and send them off-the-shelf models for protection."
"U.S. soldiers not issued the Interceptor equipment are using enhanced versions of the Vietnam-era flak jackets, which are incapable of stopping a round from a Kalashnikov or AK-47, the most common weapon in Iraq."
"In the meantime, mothers of American soldiers are raising money to pay from $650 to more than $1,000 for the off-the-shelf equipment."
Col. John Norwood, the Army's project manager for soldier equipment added,
"...production has increased from 3,350 vests per month in January to 25,000 in November. The number of vendors supplying the Army has increased from three to six."

Since the Bush administration had been planning the Iraqi invasion since early 2001, I find it quite interesting that they hadn't made efforts to obtain additional body armor, until WELL AFTER Bush had sent the troops into harm's way...


We've heard instances of administration officials ducking responsibility for the missing armor plating on the humvees. They've claimed that the suppliers weren't able to meet the demand, even though one of those suppliers say that he could in fact supply more armor, if only the Bush administration would ask for it:

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041217/NEWS/412170366/1002/NEWS01

"When Army Spc. Thomas Wilson asked Defense Secretary DonaldRumsfeld last week why troops had to pick through the trash to find armor for Humvees, it caught John Abrams' attention.

Abrams' company, Arcadia Supply Inc., helps make vehicle armor, and is turning it out as fast as the Army can place an order. The company is just waiting for the Army to ask for more.

"We could purchase more machinery, hire more people — very easily, we could double production," said Abrams, who is the company's vice president."

We've even heard stories about troops not being supplied with enough bullets.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4701323/

"his unit was chronically short of ammunition, and his support unit got pinned down at the same time across town. The two units couldn't help each other.
"They weren't giving us nearly enough ammunition for the situations out there. Everyone was running out. Everyone was grabbing each other's ammunition."


The troops are also without other needed equipment:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/31/60minutes/main652491.shtml

"Oregon guardsman Sean Davis told us that his unit was short ammunition and night vision goggles, and lacked radios to communicate with each other. He says guardsman were using walkie-talkies that they or their families purchased from a sporting goods or similar store. "And anybody can pick up those signals, you know," he says. "And we don't have the radios that we need."

Gen. Byrne says stories about families in Oregon having to go out and buy for their sons and daughters radio equipment, body armor, GPS gear, computers and night vision goggles because they weren't being issued are true. "

Perhaps this is the reason the troops aren't properly equipped:
"Winslow Wheeler, a long time Capitol Hill staffer who spent years writing and reviewing defense appropriations bills, thinks he knows one reason why those shortages exist, after looking at the current Defense budget. Army accounts that pay for training, maintenance and repairs are being raided by Congress to pay for pork-barrel spending. Wheeler says $2.8 billion that was earmarked for operations and maintenance to support U.S. troops has been used to "pay the pork bill."


We've listened to adminstration officials claim that there wasn't enough time to properly equip the troops, before sending them off to war, even though former adminstration officials have stated that the subject of invading Iraq was discussed in cabinet meetings in the earliest days of the Bush administration. Former Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill described that very situation in his book:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml

"And what happened at President Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations. “From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11. “From the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime,” says Suskind (author of O'Neill's book). “Day one, these things were laid and sealed.”

And that came up at this first meeting, says O’Neill, who adds that the discussion of Iraq continued at the next National Security Council meeting two days later.

He got briefing materials under this cover sheet. “There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, ‘Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,’" adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of Iraq in January and February of 2001. "

Former National Security Advisor, Richard Clarke also said that Team Bush seemed obsessed with invading Iraq, when he wrote in his book "Against all enemies" (pg 234):

"...in the spring of 2001... ...the Principles Committee was meeting with a full agenda and abacklog of Bush priority issues: the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, the Kyoto environmental agreement, and Iraq. There was no time for terrorism".
Clarke quoted Randy Beers, with whom he had worked on security issues for 23 years (pg 241), "They still don't get it. Insteada goin' all out against al Qaeda and eliminating our vulnerabilities at home, they wanna fuckin' invade Iraq again. We have a token U.S. military force in Afghanistan, the Taliban are regrouping, we haven't caught bin Laden, or his deputy, or the head of the Taliban. And they aren't going to send more troops to Afghanistan to catch them or to help the government in Kabul secure the country. No, they're holding back, waiting to invade Iraq"

The sad story of the Bush Administration's failure to adequately arm and equip the troops they have sent into Iraq was brought into focus again last week with the tragic deaths of the Ohio Marine Reserves. Now, we have learned more about their fate. First, we learned that this unit not only didn't have "up armored" humvees, they didn't have humvees at all. Instead, they used a lightweight aluminum navy vessel ordinarily used to transport troops from the sea, onto land "a short distance".

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050804/1a_cover04x.art.htm

"The Marines were riding in an amphibious assault vehicle called an Amtrac that is designed mainly to carry troops from ships to a short distance inland. Since the vehicle is designed to float, it is made of aluminum and has little armor in order to maintain buoyancy. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle used by the Army is more heavily armored.
“Much of the Marine Corps equipment was purchased with the prospect of a shore assault in mind,” said Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. He said that the Bush administration has been pushing the Marine Corps to prepare for a wider range of future missions.
Still, he said, “it takes time to replace equipment, and the Marines certainly didn't expect to have a major presence in Iraq two years after the campaign was supposedly won.”


In addition to receiving inferior ground transport vehicles, the Ohio unit did not receive the extra troops they had requested. USA Today reported that the unit had, "repeatedly asked for about 1000 more troops. Those requests were not granted"

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050808/1a_lede08.art.htm

"HADITHAH, Iraq — A Marine regiment that took heavy casualties last week in western Iraq — including 19 killed from a Reserve unit headquartered in Ohio — had repeatedly asked for about 1,000 more troops. Those requests were not granted.
"Regimental Combat Team 2 began asking for additional troops to police its volatile 24,000-square-mile territory before most of its Marines deployed in February, said operations officer Lt. Col. Christopher Starling, 39, of Jacksonville, N.C."
"Thomas Hammes, a retired Marine colonel who has written a book on anti-insurgency tactics, said ground commanders have been saying that they don't have enough troops to cover the country, despite the Pentagon's insistence that they do. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that he would authorize an increase in the number of troops in Iraq if top commanders asked for them. The Pentagon says that so far they haven't."