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"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson said after asking again.

Rumsfeld replied that, "You go to war with the Army you have," not the one you might want, and that any rate the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it as fast as humanly possible.

And, the defense chief added, armor is not always a savior in the kind of combat U.S. troops face in Iraq, where the insurgents' weapon of choice is the roadside bomb, or improvised explosive device.

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said.

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Ugh. That's got to be a morale killer.

EDIT: forgot ze tag again!

Karnaj fucked around with this message on 12-08-2004 at 03:06 PM.

What the hell? Of course a tank can be blown up if you toss large enough missles at it, but the guys they're fighting have pea-shooters and mines, the things that armor would offer at least some protection against.

What a horrible answer.

The soldiers' comments have some merit, but they'll be ignored because they're National Guard. That means they're just tree-hugging, liberal, unpatriotic pussies who are bitching because they don't want to be there! As such, standard policy is to just ignore them!

Note: I was being sarcastic.

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So quoth JooJooFlop:
I always wondered, why was the public able to purchase body armor to send to the troops? You would think our military would have simply bought what they didn't have from the same people the public bought theirs from.

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The public probably isn't buying the same stuff as the military has contracted. In addition, I don't believe that the military can just go out and "buy what they don't have"; if FN couldn't meet production standards for the M16, for example, I don't believe they could go and buy parts from Bushmaster, because of the way military purchase contracts are set up.

Admittedly, though, I'm not 100% positive on any of this.

And it's kind of a truism in the military that you never have all the equipment you need, the training you require or sufficient warm bodies to fill all the positions you have. I bet if you could go back and take a poll of unit commanders for D-Day, most of them would have said "we need more equipment, training and people".

Callalron fucked around with this message on 12-09-2004 at 12:16 AM.

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Vorago had this to say about Knight Rider:
Armouring their own vehicles?

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Well, the A-Team did it all the time, and look how much ass they kicked!

*starts humming the A-Team theme*

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Tarquinn had this to say about Captain Planet:
Well, the A-Team did it all the time, and look how much ass they kicked!

*starts humming the A-Team theme*

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I pity the foo who don't armor his own tank! Now eat all your greens, Sucka!

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This insanity brought to you by Callalron:
Speaking of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, would this be a good time to mention what a complete and total NIGHTMARE military procurement is? Thanks to the a-holes in Congress(of BOTH parties).

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I can vouch for that personally. I worked in Supply and Hazmat for the better part of a year, and you have to jump through hoops just to get some bleach for cleaning the deck.

And you better hope you have enough equipment from the previous fiscal year that will last into late November. Commands dont get money from the gov't for anywhere between 1 to 2 months at the conclusion on the fiscal year. Reason? Because the president has to sign the budget into action.

Thats why all that bullshit about adding dumb amendments to the budget bill pisses me off, because it HAS to go through as fast as possible.