Read this, Big Eddie: Extra Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows

[flpoljunkie]

Then apologize to John Murtha. This is the state of Dubya's Military. Would you recommend anyone you know join up?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/politics/06cnd-armor.html?ei=5094&en=cba30b2ab5b558f5&hp=&ex=1136610000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

Extra Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows

January 6, 2006

By MICHAEL MOSS

A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.

Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times.

For the first time, the study by the military's medical examiner shows the cost in lost lives from inadequate armor, even as the Pentagon continues to publicly defend its protection of the troops. Officials have said they are shipping the best armor to Iraq as quickly as possible. At the same time, they have maintained that it is impossible to shield forces from the increasingly powerful improvised explosive devices used by insurgents. Yet the Pentagon's own study reveals the equally lethal threat of bullets.

The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since the start of the war, and is part of a series of problems that have surrounded the protection of American troops. Still, the Marine Corps did not begin buying additional plates to cover the sides of their troops until this September, when it ordered 28,800 sets, Marine Corps officials acknowledge.

The Army, which has the largest force in Iraq, is still deciding what to purchase, according to Army procurement officials. They said the Army is deciding between various sizes of plates to give its 130,000 soldiers; the officials said they hope to issue contracts this month.

much more...

[MsKandice01]

1. Out-fucking-rageous...

[Jim Sagle]

2. You go to war with the armor the regime goddamn well feels like

paying for, not the armor a well-equipped soldier would expect.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. Plus we gotta support 'em the rest of their lives

If they come back merely wounded. If they die, it's much cheaper. Bastards!!! :grr:

[snowbear]

3. Kudos to Eddie for allowing listeners to talk to him for hours last night!

Eddie did a live chat for over two hours last night and allowed listeners to scream and yell at him until they were blue in the face!

Gotta love the old boy from Fargo for letting his listeners pound him into the sand! http://eliteleague.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/lol!.gif

I wonder how many rightwing radio hosts would do that?

Eddie's also trying like hell to get John Murtha on his program. (He's evidently a tough cookie to book...)

Got to hand it to Eddie. He disagreed with a great man and his listeners were pissed.

Really have to give him credit for being a human dartboard instead of just ignoring their differing opinions. Good for you Big Eddie!

[flpoljunkie]

4. You got a link to this chat? Is it perhaps archived on his website?

Do you think Big Eddie got the message about Murtha's position?

[Moochy]

6. He definitely got the message

Oh he got the message. I heard yesterday's intro and he was going on about being careful who he criticized, and that he got the emails, boy did he get emails. Something to that effect.

[madfloridian]

8. Too bad people did not take up for Dean as well.

At least you guys got through about Murtha. But he was able to convince people in the heartland that Dean was not doing his job for the party. It would have been beneficial to all of us if he had cared enough to apologize.

I am glad he is being careful about Murtha...Murtha is a good man as well.

[flpoljunkie]

9. Send this to Schultz, madfloridian: "Dean Puts Boots on the Ground"

...and from the National Journal, no less.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/01/dean_puts_boots.html#more

January 06, 2006

Dean Puts Boots On The Ground

"Howard Dean has turned out to be the biggest surprise of the season. He's a good man. And he truly gets it."

Those are the words of Charles Soechting, the TX Dem chair who when Dean announced his bid for DNC chair had Soechting grtting his teeth. At the time, the Texan worried that Dean didn't get the problems parties grappled with and certainly didn't possess the regional sympathy to figure out how to win elections in the South.

But now, closing in on Dean's 1st anniversary as DNC chair, Soechting has seen enough to convince him thatDean "knows what it to makes Texas truly competitive."

Veterans of Dem politics who work on state and local campaigns are eager to praise Dean. In part, that's because Dean has devoted the bulk of the DNC's staff, energy and time to fulfilling his chairman's campaign promise: to revitalize the Dem Party at the precinct level.

Dem strategists in DC often ask their colleagues: "What is Dean good for?" They moan that he's not raising as much as money as they expected or his surrogates promised; that he hasn't been Joe Trippi-like and revolutionized the party's small donor outreach; that he can't shut his liberal mouth. Dean's admirers have ready counter-arguments, but they've lacked something tangible to bat down the critics. But now, they say, the party's investment in states is beginning to pay off.

more...

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/01/dean_puts_boots.html#more

[snowbear]

7. Boy, oh boy did he hear about it !!

And I'm pretty sure they provide archives of everything at his website. http://edschultz.invisionzone.com/

He has a pretty severe problem with freepers there who use such severe language that they're posts are removed.. but I'll bet you'll find plenty still.

I read that there's one freeper there that uses some sort of system that allows him to have a roving ISP or something? The way I understood it is.. the guy keeps getting banned, but he keeps logging right back on under a different name and ISP?

I didn't know that was possible, but according to the people at that site.. they can't seem to get rid of the guy. They have a LOT of irate freepers there so be forewarned!