Our 'Best Equipped' Army? Baloney!

[Ian David]

Our 'Best Equipped' Army? Baloney!

By Mark Shields
Saturday, December 18, 2004; Page A27

In the three years immediately after Pearl Harbor, the United States, a nation of 132 million people with a gross domestic product of less than $100 billion, produced the following to win World War II:
• 296,429 aircraft.

• 102,351 tanks.

• 87,620 warships.

• 372,431 artillery pieces.

• 2,455,694 trucks.

Compare those heroic achievements with the current dismal supply record as the U.S. war in Iraq is fast approaching its third year and the United States, now a nation of nearly 300 million with defense spending in excess of half a trillion dollars:

• Only 5,910 of the 19,584 Humvees that U.S. troops in Iraq depend on are protected with factory-installed armor.

• More than 8,000 of the 9,128 medium and heavyweight trucks transporting soldiers and supplies in that war zone are without armor.

Because of the incompetence or indifference of this nation's civilian leadership of the war, Americans in Iraq are living with an increased risk of death.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9249-2004Dec17.html?nav=most_emailed_emailfriend

[gmoney]

1. they forgot the bullet shortage

Aren't we down to one factory that makes bullets for the military, and they were overextended? I seem to recall that story circulating a while back.

[RC]

2. If our troops run out of ammo, let them

pick up an AK47. Lots of those around over there. Besides didn't they do that before when they were sent into the war zone with just side arms?

[Hippo_Tron]

3. It's not their fault that they are there

The best that we can do is give them the equipment to stay alive and although I don't know really anything about guns, I would imagine that there's a reason that the US army uses M-16's instead of AK-47's.

[atreides1]

4. It's Not Their Fault That Iraqi Children are Dying Either, Right?

The reasons why the US military use the M-16 can be traced back to the Vietnam War, and there are many, one being money!!!!

The AK-47 is a very simple weapon, and it can take more punishment then an M-16 and still be able to fire. The AK-47 also uses a 7.62mm
short round, but can also use the standard NATO 7.62mm round.

M-16: 5.56mm
M-60: 7.62mm NATO
AK-47: 7.62mm

The best equipment we can provide the troops to stay alive are plane tickets back home, because as long as they are in Iraq, staying alive isn't totally dependent on the equipment they have, as much as it's dependent on how the insurgents continue to become more sophisticated in the way they fight.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. Agreed, they should come home ASAP and ASAP doesn't mean

As soon as we can secure US interests. Unfortunately, we don't have an administration that will do that in a million years, or an American public that gives a shit. The best we can do is make sure that as many of them are alive as possible when we can finally get a commander-in-chief who will bring them home. And no it's not their fault that Iraqi children are dieing, they don't have a choice. If you disobey orders in the military you get court-martialed and get your ass thrown in prison for as long as they want. This war isn't about the troops, this war is about Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, and all of the other neocon whores who don't give a shit about innocent life.

[jimshoes]

5. Ike warned us that

the Military Industrial Complex would be a bottomless money pit. He was right.