Sec. Defense Gates: "Is it better to give a soldier a pay raise or be able to buy MRAPs?"

[sabra]

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/05/military_gates_payraise_070524w/

<snip>

The Army and Marine Corps want to buy a total of more than 20,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, designed to provide better protection against improvised explosive devices, the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

“That’s billions and billions of dollars,” Gates said. “Where’s it going to come from? Is it better to give a soldier a pay raise or be able to buy MRAPs? I mean, these are the trade-offs that we have to make. And it seemed to us that 3 percent was a fair increase in compensation.”

A key Senate leader does not agree.

“I think the administration is going to lose on this one,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, whose committee is considering approving the House-passed raise.

“If there is ever a time for this kind of raise, it is in the middle of a war,” Levin said.

[whistle]

1. Tell you what Sec Gates, get our troops the fuck out of Iraq you piece of shit!

[Solly Mack]

2. LMAO

and those lost billions?

LMAO

I'm amazed at how easily people are manipulated



Send them off to die for lies and trumped up evidence, pretend that didn't happen, and then pretend support comes in the form of a pay raise or the equipment for said bullshit war.



With "support" like that, who needs enemies?

[babylonsister]

3. That's a bunch of bullshit! If this admin can't afford to fund the war and

protect the troops, we have no business being there in the first place. Someone should have thought of that before the illegal occupation started. That'll be a nice selling point when trying to recruit.:grr: :nuke:

[partylessinOhio]

4. Hey, Bozo! Reverse those tax cuts for the wealthy and end trade-offs!

Geez! Do you think we're stupid? Is this how you are supporting our troops? Cutting their meals and freezing their pay?

[unpossibles]

5. not only the tax cuts

but how about the over-paid contrators?

[Kagemusha]

6. Good propaganda but pretty damned awful on every other level.

There's a lot of other waste and I don't feel like spending all day writing a post so I'll leave it at that...

[atreides1]

7. That's funny in 2005 the MRAP's weren't that important!!!

Got this from another thread:

Source: USA Today

More than two years before the Marine commandant declared getting new armored vehicles his top priority, the Corps did not fulfill an urgent request to buy 1,200 of the vehicles for troops in Anbar province, according to Marine officials and documents.
Commanders in Anbar, the heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, wanted the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to protect troops attacked by insurgents using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to a Feb. 17, 2005, request filed by then-brigadier general Dennis Hejlik.

The Marines, the request said, "cannot continue to lose … serious and grave casualties to IED … at current rates when a commercial off the shelf capability exists to mitigate" them. Hejlik and a Marine Corps spokesman, Brig. Gen. Robert Milstead, confirmed the authenticity of the memo, which was first reported Tuesday on the Wired magazine website.

Since 2005, Pentagon leaders have shifted course on the MRAP. The Marines have requested 3,700 of the vehicles, and the Army is now seeking up to 17,700. The overall cost of buying the MRAPs could reach $25 billion, Pentagon records show.

On Wednesday, Hejlik and other officials said the Marines determined in 2005 they could protect troops better with armored Humvees than MRAPs.