the american mindset is “well if our boys(and girls) are dying over there, then somethings obviously wrong with the place so lets keep trying to fix it”

and its sad. The goverment did learn something from vietnam, *don’t let the media get ahold of this shit*

When *people* think of the phrase “support our troops” they think of that pathetic-made in china- yellow ribbon magnent on the back of there car.
when i think of “support our troops” i contemplate poping some senators heads like grapes with a .308

get our soldiers out of that hellhole. or let them wear there dragonskin (cool stuff, look on youtube)

DI: Don’t misrepresent the facts Right – my sources are not associated at all with the company that makes Dragon Skin armor.

RT: And just how would the makers of Dragon Skin produce enough pieces to outfit an the theatre? Can they make 200,000 units by March?

How the hell should I know? The government places an order and they either agree to fill it by a certain date or they don’t. Nobody seems to mind that the vehicle armor contracts haven’t been met.

I see this as a ‘what if’ bonanza right now, and my assumption would be that since Dragon Skin is so widely used within the government, that yes, they’d be able to fill the order. Of course, I don’t work for the company.

DI: To include the Pentagon, that ran the study to determine that 80% of the casualties could have been prevented with the better body armor.

RT: I notice they don’t say these deaths could have been prevented by Dragon Skin. The average soldier already carries 50-70 pounds of gear, how much of a load do you want them to carry. What body armor do the terrorists wear?

Why not makes suits of King Arthur plate mail armor out of titanium, that should make the soldiers safe. We could lock all of our soldiers in Fort Knox, they should be safe there.

Actually Right, the report was specifically about the body armor the soldiers have now, compared with what they could and should have. We shouldn’t be glib about this.

DI: I said that rather than address the issue, they’ll allow more soldiers to die needlessly, because they don’t want to touch the issue at all!

RT: And the Democrats do? Democrats want a cut and run. They would rather have American civilians killed here rather than soldier killed over there. There really is no story here.

Democrats have been leading this initiative. Clinton just spoke about it again this past week. When the shortfall in the VA budget was identified, it was Pat Murray (Democrat) who brought the ammendment up for funding, and Republicans voted against it. Then a month later, the White House recognized the shortfall and provided the 5 billion dollars.

Facts Right – - – Don’t forget that I’ve been on these issues like stink on shit since day one. From before deadissue could even crawl I was researching and writing about this.

Frodo says:
You both are way out of control here. No soldier dies needlessly unless we do not do the best we can for them and remember the ones who did die and the ones who did serve.

The Military, and its higher ups, are not in the buisness of letting soldiers get killed and neither is the Senate or the White House. And anyone who thinks they are is in some serious denial. We spend plenty, just look at the deficet, but sometimes mistakes are made or something new comes along, maybe not in time for use now, and maybe some would rather not have us know about it after the fact. Human reactions that may or may not have cost lives.

Respect is all the soldiersask. |respect for what they are currently doing, and cut and run is not what I am talking about. respect for what they have done in the past, and support for treatments , medical attention and caring for thier loved ones after they are gone is all they ask.

Remember this is war. No one is trying to get anyone killed or intentionally sending soldiers out to fight with anything but the best equipment. And for the most part we have just that. It is a ligistical nightmare and sometimes the supplies do not get to wher ethey are needed at the right time. Sometimes food is not best or in enough supply. Sometimes parts to fix that wonderful technology stuff does not reach where it is needed on time. But for the most part it reaches and does make it in time.

I look at my work and think, and all the problems we have doing something comapritivly simple, of the ligistics of what is involved in the invorment they are in and shake my head and wonder any of it works.

Is anyone really intentionlly trying to screw this up? Other than the Media, sorry Chris had to throw that one in. Some may be trying to hide the mistakes after the fact if they really did make some mistakes. Comparitive analisys is inevitable and I willl critized for this remark but i would still rather go into such a fight as a US soldier with all the benifits that are and supplies that such a priviledge affords, than other amry in the world. And most of guys say just that when asked. But thier is no media bias or we would have heard about that as well right?

Frodo, you’re 100% right on the importance of uniformity, but in this instance the military is using it as a fire extinguisher.

There are little things I lamented over while soldering…like how a battle dressing weighs less than an ounce, yet we’d only be issued one when deployed. When someone’s leg gets blown off, yes, you can make a tourniquet with one, but what if both legs are blown off? Soldiers in Iraq have been caught with too few battle dressings…what’s the cost of this? Body armor is simply an example of how the soldiers are shortchanged (like w/ the dressings), only on a larger scale.

When I got to Germany, I was given a 20 year old sleeping bag and that’s what I went out to the field with. February, bitter cold, nobody told me to purchase a poncho liner as every single other person out there had already…a poncho liner is made of material that when used as insulation inside the sleeping bag, the thing actually keeps you warm. For two weeks I suffered (this is an apt use of this word, I’m not crying like a baby here), shivering in my sack with my uniform on, boots and my cold weather gear as well.

Now why wasn’t a poncho liner standard issue for anyone who would be sleeping in the cold? $$$ is the first thing, but the second is simply that they CAN get away with having soldiers pay the military for what they NEED, because the civilian population doesn’t give a damn about what the troops have or don’t have.

Frodo, I know you care, and I appreciate that. I hope that you’d take my word for it though, that when it comes to providing for enlisted soldiers, the Army cuts corners everywhere they can. While sleeping and waking up freezing for two weeks isn’t as bad as having a frag blown through your eye socket, it’s still unnecessary.

Considering how much Halliburton makes over there serving food, you’d think we’d have enough cash to ensure soldiers aren’t having to spend their own dough for gear that’s considered necessary. A poncho liner falls under that category, extra field dressings fall under that category, top of the line body armor falls under that category.

The Military, and its higher ups, are not in the buisness of letting soldiers get killed and neither is the Senate or the White House. And anyone who thinks they are is in some serious denial. We spend plenty, just look at the deficet, but sometimes mistakes are made or something new comes along, maybe not in time for use now, and maybe some would rather not have us know about it after the fact. Human reactions that may or may not have cost lives.

Respect is all the soldiersask. |respect for what they are currently doing, and cut and run is not what I am talking about. respect for what they have done in the past, and support for treatments , medical attention and caring for thier loved ones after they are gone is all they ask.

Remember this is war. No one is trying to get anyone killed or intentionally sending soldiers out to fight with anything but the best equipment. And for the most part we have just that. It is a ligistical nightmare and sometimes the supplies do not get to wher ethey are needed at the right time. Sometimes food is not best or in enough supply. Sometimes parts to fix that wonderful technology stuff does not reach where it is needed on time. But for the most part it reaches and does make it in time.

I look at my work and think, and all the problems we have doing something comapritivly simple, of the ligistics of what is involved in the invorment they are in and shake my head and wonder any of it works.

Is anyone really intentionlly trying to screw this up? Other than the Media, sorry Chris had to throw that one in. Some may be trying to hide the mistakes after the fact if they really did make some mistakes. Comparitive analisys is inevitable and I willl critized for this remark but i would still rather go into such a fight as a US soldier with all the benifits that are and supplies that such a priviledge affords, than other amry in the world. And most of guys say just that when asked. But thier is no media bias or we would have heard about that as well right?

And just how would the makers of Dragon Skin produce enough pieces to outfit an the theatre? Can they make 200,000 units by March?

To include the Pentagon, that ran the study to determine that 80% of the casualties could have been prevented with the better body armor.

I notice they don’t say these deaths could have been prevented by Dragon Skin. The average soldier already carries 50-70 pounds of gear, how much of a load do you want them to carry. What body armor do the terrorists wear?

Why not makes suits of King Arthur plate mail armor out of titanium, that should make the soldiers safe. We could lock all of our soldiers in Fort Knox, they should be safe there.

I said that rather than address the issue, they’ll allow more soldiers to die needlessly, because they don’t want to touch the issue at all!

And the Democrats do? Democrats want a cut and run. They would rather have American civilians killed here rather than soldier killed over there. There really is no story here.

Right – Quoting the last paragraph of the piece: The saddest aspect of this body armor issue though, is the fact that our government is too cheap to provide our troops with the same Dragon Skin body armor worn by “the Secret Service Presidential Protection detail, CIA, NSA, DoE, journalists and contractors in Iraq, U.S. Air Force, Special Ops forces, and several generals in the field.”

Don’t misrepresent the facts Right – my sources are not associated at all with the company that makes Dragon Skin armor.

An attempt to spin the reality that politics are being played with soldiers’ lives is basically to assume that everyone is lying. To include the Pentagon, that ran the study to determine that 80% of the casualties could have been prevented with the better body armor.

People are dead! And I didn’t say that more people dying equals GOP wins, I said that rather than address the issue, they’ll allow more soldiers to die needlessly, because they don’t want to touch the issue at all!

The military will give the orders, the soldiers will leave the Dragon Skin body armor behind, and from there they’ll monitor communications and ramrod the next one they catch talking to the press about this issue.