Our Troops lack armor and weaponry. Hmmm heard this before

[TayTay]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/06/21/marine_units_found_to_lack_equipment/

WASHINGTON -- Marine Corps units fighting in some of the most dangerous terrain in Iraq don't have enough weapons, communications gear, or properly outfitted vehicles, according to an investigation by the Marine Corps' inspector general provided to Congress yesterday.

Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts The report, obtained by the Globe, says the estimated 30,000 Marines in Iraq need twice as many heavy machine guns, more fully protected armored vehicles, and more communications equipment to operate in a region the size of Utah.

The Marine Corps leadership has ''understated" the amount and types of ground equipment it needs, according to the investigation, concluding that all of its fighting units in Iraq ''require ground equipment that exceeds" their current supplies, ''particularly in mobility, engineering, communications, and heavy weapons."

Complaints of equipment shortages in Iraq, including lack of adequate vehicle armor, have plagued the Pentagon for months, but most of the reported shortages have been found in the Army, which makes up the bulk of the American occupation force.

Hmmm, now where did I hear that warning about expenseive equipemnt problems before. Let me try and remember.

Jan 18, 2005. Hearing on confirmation of Condi Rice
SEN. KERRY: Do you think that that misjudgment about what it can or can't do -- and I say misjudgment in broad terms -- has complicated choices that you may face and the president may face today as a result of the stretching pretty thin of our military forces, numbers of divisions, active duty, equipment? I mean, the commanders over there tell me that in, you know, a matter of months you put on several years of wear and tear on equipment. There's going to be a huge equipment deficit at the back end of this that America has yet to really see the bill for. I gather one year there is worth seven years on an aircraft.

MS. RICE: Well, we've been at war, and we have -- we've had to use our forces and use them hard. I think that Secretary Rumsfeld is giving a lot of attention to how to deal with the obligations that we have and the structure of our forces. We believe we can continue to meet obligations that we have globally with the forces that we have, but there's no doubt as to the matter of how one transitions from war to peace and that intermediate stage that we need new skills and new organizations in order to be able to do that. The military fights and wins the war.

There's a period of time, I think appropriately, where the military is really the dominant force on the ground. But as you move to civilian reconstruction, you need people who understand legal reform and understand how to build a civil justice system and a police system, how to trade a -- change a currency, and that's what we're going to try to build.

SEN. KERRY: Well, I know that Senator Lugar has long been concerned about this; a lot of us on the committee have. But I must say to you that I am deeply concerned -- I mean, I recommended that we add another 40,000 troops. I gather there's going to be an addition of some 30,000 without formally creating new divisions.

But I think we are way behind the curve in terms of this civilian side combined public diplomacy component. And I don't think the budget begins to match what it needs to. And when you look at the other side of the costs I just described -- the back-end military equipment, et cetera -- the American taxpayer, to pursue this properly, has a -- you know, it goes back to what Senator Biden was saying earlier about kind of telling the American people what's expected of them.

I don't personally think it's all on the table sufficiently when you combine the needs of the counterproliferation efforts with various challenges of the human condition, with various challenges of the narcotics and other environmental and other kinds of efforts that are all sort of growing rather than receding. I hope that -- and then you added to what Senator Sarbanes has been saying about our overall fiscal challenge here.

We have some very, very tough choices ahead of us. I hope the administration and you will really put them to the Congress and to the American people, because the outcome is obviously gigantic. But we've got to be on the right track.

[ginnyinWI]

1. hmm yes, indeed

And I remember last December there was a letter from a certain Senator to Sec. of Defense Rummy about the same thing--the lack of armor.

[JI7]

2. and of course during the entire campaign season

he brought it up often. it's disgusting the media didn't make it as big an issue as it is. if it was a Democratic President they would have reported things about how it shows the Pres doesn't care about the troops.