What if 1,000 Armored Vehicles Didn't Get to Troops and No One Cared
In the news jumble today -- a new White House front group targeting Republicans on Iraq, Ari Fleischer not knowing the name of the veterans he used in the ads, the president saying we should have stayed in Vietnam while he was defending the airspace of Texas from the VC, and the tragic helicopter crash that killed 14 of our troops -- an important story is getting buried.
Reuters reports that "U.S. troops in Iraq will receive at least 1,000 fewer special armored vehicles than expected this year due to the amount of time needed for shipment."
This is unacceptable. Completely and utterly unacceptable. The issue of getting the most up to date Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles has been a problem for a while, and it's no closer to getting solved.
For years, the United States Marines have urgently requested MRAP vehicles for use in Iraq. Ever since a 2005 memo was sent up the chain of command by then-brigadier general Dennis Hejlik, the Bush administration's civilians in the Pentagon knew of the need for MRAP vehicles. Yet, it wasn't until March of this year that the Pentagon began to move on providing the 3,700 MRAP vehicles requested by the Marines, and over 17,000 requested by the Army. Even still, contract requests that were put out to eight companies didn't forsee production and distribution of the vehicles until 2009.
Now we're finding the ones we've produced can't be shipped quickly enough? That is an outrage. Senator Joseph Biden has it right. In response to the slow production schedule foreseen by the administration, Biden told USA Today, "You cannot tell me that this country is incapable in the next six months of building every single damn one of these vehicles that needs to be built."
History says Senator Biden is right. America's industry has stepped up to the challenge of quick, quality production before:
- In the spring of 1941, the first M3 combat tank rolled off the line at a Chrysler facility -- just four months after Chrysler received the blueprints for the brand new vehicle. (Source: The New York Times, April 24, 1941, Editorial)
- During World War II, the Ford Motor Company applied its mass production innovation to the production of B-24 bombers. By the end of the war, Ford was producing one B-24 every 63 minutes. (Source: "Airpower Classics," Air Force Magazine, June 2006)
- At the Richmond Kaiser Shipyards during the second world war, it was only taking a little over two weeks to assemble an entire Liberty ship. (Source: National Park Service)
What excuse is there for the shamefully slow production and shipping of MRAP vehicles? If our industry once was able to build an entire bomber in an hour and an entire Navy ship in two weeks, why does the Bush administration show no problem with it taking over a year to build 20,000 MRAP vehicles? Why hasn't the President himself taken responsibility and called industry and the Pentagon out on their BS? Where is the leadership? Hell, where is the outrage?
Troops lives are at stake. In the military, if I knew troops lives were at stake and I just sat and watched a problem that put them in danger, I would get a serious reprimand, probable demotion, maybe court martial. But, the president and civilians at the Pentagon? Nada. That is the definition of outrage.
P.S. I also wanted to highlight a new ad we're unveiling today at VoteVets.org. You can view it below. We're kicking it off in Maine in a few days, and then plan to take it to ten other states and districts. Oh, and unlike Ari Fleischer, I know the name of this veteran -- John Bruhns. I talk to him almost every day, as well as many, many other troops and veterans who also served in Iraq, like me.
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I think we drifted off the subject. So if I may also bring out the soap box.
There is no war for which we are prepared. Neither can we predict the shape of the next war. There will always be war. Mankind of all ilks will demand it. We crave it. Why, because there will always be someone or a group of people that want something someone else has, or wants to control others. Some days they may be Republicans, other days Democrats, or Communists, or Facists. The designation is irrelevant. As long as there is someone ready to stand up to these people there is hope. Does it matter that we went after Saddam for supporting Al Qaida? He was a ruthless dictator who killed thousands, he was also involved in an attempt to assassinate a President of the U.S. He also repeatedly broke a cease fire to a war that had the UN's support. Will Iraq be better off? Perhaps and perhaps not, at least they will have the chance. Hopefully they will put aside their differences like N.Ireland and realize there is a good future available to all of them.
I think any honest discussion of what we've seen over the last several years also needs to contain a direct treatment of the 'c' word, corruption. Eisenhower warned famously of the military-industrial complex, and before him there was Smedley Butler, with his proclamation that "War is a racket". I read that there's now a 460 billion dollar 'defense' budget. My question is, 'defending against what, solvency'?
The numbers don't add up, and the general message here I think is that there's a LOT of people stuffing their pockets at taxpayer expense with NO evidence of a conscience whatsoever, and that's why there needs to be a lot more public accountability in all of this.
We can either have a balanced budget, publicly accountable government, AND an effective military, or we can have a runaway sunshine story whose only purpose in life is to perpetuate itself.
Let's hear what these people have to say about
running a balanced budget in '08. I anticipate
stony silence...
Grover Norquist is Bush's Tax Advisor. His stated aim, before Bush was elected, was not just to cut government, but to "take it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Our middle class is disappearing, and it's by design. Banks and CEOs act like there really is no tomorrow. World-Com anyone? Enron? Read Arianna's "Pigs at the Trough."
Part and parcel of that is destroying the military. Shortly after Bush was installed, political advisers began showing up at Pentagon security meetings. Good military officers were forced out.
Part and parcel of this looting of the government and destruction of the military has been privatizing military support -- cooks, laundry workers, you name it. What kind of message do soldiers get when they have to provide security to convoys alongside private mercenaries earning three times their salaries (often more)? Halliburton, despite overcharging millions, was re-awarded their contract "because they were already there."
Over fifty percent of critical military supplies are foreign-made. If the manufacturers say they can't do it, that may be true. Congress is failing their duty if they don't do something about that.
Nuclear bunker busters? First strike use of nuclear weapons? No president before Bush has EVER taken that stance.
The destruction of the military is also in ethics. That poison runs deeper than the mismanagement of supplies.
After 2002, he stopped talking with his minister, saying he no longer had doubts about what God wanted him to do. Bush has also said he believes in eschatology -- that is, helping to bring about the final days of Revelations in the Bible.
We have a President who is disabled (dyslexia), a convicted felon (driving drunk is a felony), an alcoholic and narcotic addict, spotty Air Guardsman (amazing what you can do to military records once you are governor), and poor businessman. He also believes in helping bring about the end of the world.
Bush and Cheney should be impeached. Congress' failure to impeach is THEIR failure to fulfill THEIR oath of office.
Yes, we should be outraged but we should not be surprised. At the beginning of the war, the Pentagon decided to award the contract to supply our troops with body armor to one company, instead of dividing it among the 7 or 8 firms capable of doing the job. The result was that it was not until 8 months after "Mission Accomplished" that all of our soldiers were outfitted with this vital equipment. Until then, thousands went unprotected.
This is the way the war has been from the beginning. Bush didn't send enough troops in the first place. He sent them without the proper equipment. DOD awarded no-bid contracts to companies who fed our fighting men and women twice a day, instead of the three meals contracted for, and served our heroes contaminated water. Since the mid-term elections, Bush has responded to calls for withdrawal by claiming he "will listen to Commanders on the ground." Those are the same Commanders who informed him, pre-war, that there were not enough troops to start with.
This administration of hypocrites and liars, which claims such respect and concern for our military personnel, has failed miserably. Bush and his merry band of chickenhawk thugs didn't care about the troops before they left our shores; hasn't taken care of them while they are there, and treats them like garbage when they return wounded or maimed. Yet they have the audacity, the hubris, the hypocrisy to label as unpatriotic and unsupportive those of us who just want our troops to come home.
Jon good job! Folks, this type of info is exactly what makes the rightwingers uncomfortable. Use it, forward it and post it
Two of the "Big 3" US auto companies went through bankruptcy because they weren't selling enough cars. How are they not able to produce vehicles back ordered and guaranteed to make a profit???
Is this an indication of why the American auto industry is a failure, or of why the Bush Administration is a failure? Perhaps both.
TOO GD LITTLE TO LATE......
A partial solution to the Iraq problem, but a complete solution for the worst part.
1) Withdraw the troops ASAP. This makes everyone with a shred of humanity happy. And give them great benefits.
2) Keep everything else the same:
a) The spending on military equipment. This keeps the MIC happy.
b) The continuing (Iraqi) bloodshed the military equipment enables keeps the NeoCons happy.
c) Let KBR, et.al., keep raping the taxpayers with their poorly executed, no bid contracts. This keeps KBR, Cheney and his cronies happy.
d) Make it all contingent on rapaciously favorable oil deals for the Oilgarchy. This keeps the Oilgarchy, Cheney and his cronies happy.
e) Let Blackwater's mercs stay there. This makes some psycho rightwingers (is that redundant?) happy. This also makes me happy since it makes fewer mercs available for Bush's deification/el Presidente for life plans. f) Have everyone in the US declare it an unqualified success. Send Bush congratulatory emails. Very belated Valentines. `Best President Ever'(tm) Hallmark(r) cards. Flowers. Whatever it takes. This makes Bush's inner (and outer) child happy and perhaps gives Oedipus a kick in the nuts.
Bingo. Simple. A major success lives wise. Step 2 (Iraqi lives and the money) may be harder.
E Pleb Neesta
GODISNOWHERE
Blessed are the cheese makers.
If HPV vaccination promotes promiscuity, then confession promotes sin.
And who is surprised that MRAP vehicles are not available.
NOT the American Auto Manufacturers who have moved to make their money from other countries;
NOT the American public who now purchases more foreign made autos; and
NOT the TROOPS who have been forced by RUMMY, CHENEY, BUSHY and the GENERALS they brow-beat to referee a civil war of MUSLIM extremists;
NOT the TROOPS who returned with broken-bodies, broken-hearts and broken-promises from this 'chicken-hawk' misminstration to Walter Reed,to jobs that were taken away by this inept government and emotional traumas in their homes because they were forced to STAY LONGER THAT TROOPS HAVE EVER BEEN SO MISUSED IN AMERICAN HISTORY BEFORE.
Surprising, that the various corporations wouldn't be jumping on this for more war profiteering. But contractors can say, "No." For an a more complete picture of how are troops are being shortchanged, check out Dina Rasor and Robert Bauman's _Betraying Our Troops_.
Yet we seem to have no problem turning out Hummers for Celebrities X, Y & Z... Bush's buddies can't turn out or tool up to produce enough Purple Hearts for the wars they invent, let alone body armor or armored vehicles.
We can't really expect their big business buddies to handle Humvees, just Hummers.
I think the facts are a bit skewed here. The M3 tank was a disaster as a tank. The initial tanks were riveted which was an outmoded form of production. It took the entire war to produce 28,000 M4 Sherman tanks. Even this was a 2nd rate tank.
As a combat soldier it is bad enough to not have the equipment needed but it is worse to get it and have it not work. These vehicles have been long sought after by the military but for many years it was cut out of the budget. The early editions were never completely tested, and without the new technology in the current design were not very blast proof. Ask the Russians in their BTR series.
The vehicle itself is not easy to produce, not only is its mine blast technology classified but your average automaker cannot produce it. Then the vehicle has to be configured for the type of unit it is going to. Infantry units have different configurations than Cavalry.
The auxilary equipment that is installed is not just a simple radio like years before. It is a technology suite that must be configured to the new vehicle and its intended purpose. This equipment must be procured, tested and installed. The question to configure it here in the states or ship the vehicle and do it overseas is not an easy answer. As a soldier I would prefer an American worker state side install my gear.
Are the units in Iraq ready to receive the vehicles. Are they turning in their old vehicles yet? This must also be accomplished. Wesimply do not have the soldiers to do everything all at once. We could use some volunteers. I thought not.
We know that the military is far from perfect as is this administration. Let's keep after the Pentagon to make sure they are doing their jobs but in fairness we need to know what exactly those jobs entail.
"You don't go to war with the army you want. You go to war with the army you have." -- Donald Rumsfeld.
That statement epitomizes the incompetence of the neocon thugs who took us into this Iraq War fiasco, because the reasoning behind the statement is incredibly flawed. When a war is a war of choice -- a war of aggression -- you go with the army you want. When a war is a war of necessity, you go with the army you have.
Obviously, the Iraq War was a war of choice; therefore, our “leaders” had the obligation to take the time to fully prepare our troops for the predictable unconventional warfare tactics utilized by our enemies. But nooo -- they wouldn’t wait for that. They were in such a hurry to remove Hussein from power (“ ‘cause he tried to kill my daddy”) and then install a democratic government, they didn’t have time to worry about “trivial details,” such as providing proper protective gear and equipment for our troops (you remember our troops: those guys who are in harm’s way doing the actual fighting and whom the Republicans “support” better than anyone else, even though when they used them for props in their pro-war ads, Ari Fleischer couldn’t tell you the name of the disabled vet in the ad; “I don’t have his name in front of me right now,” he replied, when asked by Mike Barnacle. A simple “I don’t know his name” would have sufficed, instead of going into his usual “spin mode.”)
The neocons’ “grand experiment” of turning Iraq into a democracy has become a dismal and costly failure. The arrogant meddling of this Republican administration in Middle-Eastern affairs has been handily rejected by the denizens of the region, who justifiably suspect that our goal was to control their oil reserves. Unfortunately, this failed endeavor has cost thousands of honorable American lives -- many of whom would be here today, had our "leaders" done the right thing by making sure that they were fully equipped with proper protection from the outset.
Who’s surprised?
VV needs to put the kibosh on Freedom Watch (an oxymoron if I've ever heard one in this context).
How can they go on espousing rhetoric for the selfsame situation that they created.
They're throwing oil on the fire. Time for a big bucket of sand to get dumped on these armchair puppets.
It's all about leadership. And we don't have any.
All we get are lies and spin.
And Democrats who cave in to it all.
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Posted August 23, 2007 | 11:23 AM (EST)