Surge of troops, but no surge of armored vehicles

[TexasLawyer]

Surge of troops, but no surge of armored vehicles

Lack of specialized Humvees is worse than initially thought

By DAVID WOOD, Baltimore Sun
January 22, 2007

WASHINGTON - After nearly four years of war in Iraq, the Pentagon's effort to protect its troops against roadside bombs is in disarray, with soldiers and Marines having to swap access to scarce armored vehicles and the military unsure whether it has the money or industrial capacity to produce the safe vehicles it says the troops need.

On Jan. 10, The Baltimore Sun reported that most of the 21,500 troops President Bush has ordered to Iraq as reinforcements will not have access to specialized blast-resistant armored vehicles because they are in such short supply.

But the problem runs deeper than that. In congressional testimony and interviews last week, senior Army and Marine Corps officers acknowledged that they are struggling just to meet the needs of service members already in Iraq. Even if the Pentagon can find millions of dollars not currently budgeted, and even if it can find factories to produce the armored vehicles, most U.S. troops in Iraq will not have access to the best equipment available, as President Bush has often promised.

The Army acknowledged last week, for example, that it is still 22 percent short of the armored Humvees it needs in Iraq despite heated criticism in 2004 and 2005 over the lack of armored vehicles. Army officials said it will be another eight months before that gap can be filled. But with roadside bombs and other explosive devices accounting for 70 percent of American casualties in Iraq, senior officers acknowledged that even heavily armored Humvees don't provide enough protection.

<snip>

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/iraq_conflict/article/0,1406,KNS_9217_5296145,00.html

[Bozita]

1. Bush only thinks one step ahead. Equipping his "surge" is beyond his scope.

Good post!

[sakabatou]

3. One step ahead?

He only thinks where his shadow is, if he even thinks!

[ninkasi]

2. The enormous amounts of money spent on Bush's war

have mostly gone straight to his corrupt cronies, like Halliburton, and private security outfits like Blackwater. He's been too busy cutting the wealthy's taxes and trashing the Constitution to worry about whether the sons and daughters of middle and lower economic class Americans are protected or not. After all, it's not Jenna or not-Jenna risking death or amputation in his war of choice.

It's not his nieces, or nephews, or the loved ones of the elite who have to worry. They're making out like the bandits they are. This alone should be grounds for impeachment.

[VegasWolf]

4. "Dat think'in is hard, hard werk!" George W Bush.

[LynnTheDem]

5. criminal. treason.

George W. bUsh.

[Theduckno2]

6. They'll just have to make up the shortfall with airpower.

The turning to airpower is one of the under-reported stories of the Iraqi War.

I swear, if there is a way to make a tragedy even more tragic, Bushco can find it.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. Guys are cheap, Humvees are expensive.

[w4rma]

9. Cheap to the wealthy. Very very expensive to the soldiers and their families and friends. (nt)

[tbyg52]

23. Exactly, and it's the wealthy

who are running this, and the not-wealthy who are fighting it.

[northofdenali]

8. I'd like to see every stateside humvee

with the yellow stickers everywhere, immediately confiscated, armored, and shipped where they'd be useful.

I cannot believe the depths of my hatred for this man.

[JohnnyLib2]

10. "a reapplication of tactics that have already proven a calamitous failure"

See Marmar's Saturday post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x258390

[Porcupine]

11. I know where a few hundred thousand SUVs are available....

really, really cheap. Yeah their armor is for shit but you only put one troop per truck and it really reduces the risk.

America's passion for burly SUV fizzles

Sales of SUVs for the first three months of this year fell by nearly 15 percent from last year at this time, according to Ward's Automotive, a Michigan firm that studies the industry. Sales of Ford's Excursion and Expedition SUVs fell about 28 percent. At GM, sales of the big Chevrolet Suburban were down nearly 30 percent; the Tahoe, a slightly shorter Suburban, had a 22 percent drop.

[formercia]

14. The Taliban really like them

and they come in lots of neat colors to look just like civilian vehicles. Gotta blend....

[Hissyspit]

12. .

[formercia]

13. There are thousands of up armored HUMVEES

ready for battle sitting Kuwait.

Ooops, sorry, those were meant to be used in Iran...

[gratuitous]

15. What are we spending the defense budget on?

Our national budget allocates over a billion dollars a day, each and every day, to defense. What are we spending it on, if not to properly equip our military in the field? I know that Republicans like to brag about what savvy businessmen they are, and how, if the American people would only wise up, they’d apply Republican business principles to running government, and everything would be not just dory, but hunky as well. What business model is it that counsels massive undertakings without sufficient means (whether it’s financial, logistical, personnel, support structures, or inventory) to carry them forward? Is it because you can’t bribe an IED that the Republican plan in Iraq has been such a miserable failure?

[AnneD]

16. Yah go to war

with the Army ya got :eyes: Why am I not surprised. The reason these redeployments take so long is so they can re-coup AND re-equip. And if memory serves me right, one of those bases slated for closing was one of those bases that refurbishes the tanks and armoured vehicles. Maybe now chuckle nuts will see give up on this disaster and go back to clearing brush and getting drunk.

[MGKrebs]

17. How about beds, and food, and water, and fuel,

and socks, and ammo, and goggles, and lockers, and tires, and oil, and transmission fluid, and ball joints, and lug nuts, and toilets, and refrigerators, and vegetables, and bowls, and forks, and showers, and chairs, and belts, and padlocks, and zip-ties, and night vision goggles, and gloves, and flashlights, and gas cans, and brooms, and dish soap....

We're talking about dropping 20,000 more troops into a big city (which we are trying to make more functional), and they have to be segregated from the population. Where do you put them? Where do get all the stuff? Where do you KEEP all the stuff without antagonizing the populace? Being forced to house occupying soldiers was one of the main reasons for OUR revolution.

[lyonn]

19. True, true.... where to put the troops?

Hadn't thought of that. Continues to sound more and more like our guys are sitting ducks. It was reported yesterday that Sat. attacks of govt. official bldg. where 4 (?) of ours were killed is a good example of your post. The insurgents (?) knew exactly where to strike.

[lyonn]

18. The pure shame of it all, thanks bush

Humm, have the up-armour bunch not paid their dues? Hard to believe that they couldn't keep up with the demand. Haliburton seems to be drawing the dollars to perform.

What about those anti-missle gadgets that CNN has had specials on that Israel produced and proved more than 90% effective against thing like shoulder held rockets, etc.? We (U.S.) hope to have something better in 4 or so years, or so the U.S. company that has the contract states. BS

[chieftain]

20. Thanks for sharing this appalling piece of information.

I had blithely assumed that the bunglers had finally fixed this problem.Their concern for our troops welfare is lacking once again.

[kineneb]

21. "Into the valley of Death..."

Why, oh why is Tennyson running through my head...



The Charge Of The Light Brigade
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Memorializing Events in the Battle of Balaclava,
October 25, 1854
Written 1854


Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

[Kolesar]

22. I usually don't read the song lyrics posted on DU, but that was an exception

...and exceptional. good choice
And, yes, I know, those are not "song lyrics".

[kineneb]

24. amazing, that so little changes, across the years n/t

[tavalon]

25. Shows pretty clearly that his priority is protecting his political butt

not protecting the troops butts. But then we knew that.