Is that a shrub in your pocket...
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
The Army You Have
Here's an example of what you get when you go to war - as Donald Rumsfeld would put it - with the army you have, as opposed to the army you "might want." According to the story by the New England Journal of Medicine, this is a "common type of injury associated with roadside improvised explosive device run over by a Humvee." You know, that would be the kind that doesn't have armor plating underneath the floorboards. That would be the kind that the US was forced to rush to war with because Saddam had all those phantom WMD's and fictional ties to 9/11.
This is the war where - even after two years - there isn't enough body armor, night vision googles, armored vehicles, troops, you name it. This is the war that was planned (if you can call it that) to be carried out on the cheap, no muss, no fuss. It's just a matter of "physics" that our people don't have what they need over there (even though the companies that produce these vehicles say they can ramp up production by over 20% immediately).
Well, suddenly, after being embarassed on workd television, apparently the army is finally looking to accelerate production of armored versions of the Humvee to get them to the troops more quickly.
How many kids had to have their parts blown to shreds - needlessly - because we went to war "with the army we had?"
