Support the Troops
This is really, really fucked up:
Two deploying soldiers and a concerned mother reported Friday afternoon that the U.S. Army appears to be singling out soldiers who have purchased Pinnacle’s Dragon Skin Body Armor for special treatment. The soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin and were killed their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and facing disciplinary action. The soldiers asked for anonymity because they are concerned they will face retaliation for going public with the Army’s apparently new directive. At the sources’ requests DefenseWatch has also agreed not to reveal the unit at which the incident occured for operational security reasons.
So first we send troops into battle with too little body armor, then when some troops privately purchase their own armor the Army tells them to leave it behind? What could possibly be their reasoning?
Recently Dragon Skin became an item of contention between proponents of the Interceptor OTV body armor generally issued to all service members deploying in combat theaters and its growing legion of critics. Critics of the Interceptor OTV system say it is ineffective and inferior to Dragon Skin, as well as several other commercially available body armor systems on the market. Last week DefenseWatch released a secret Marine Corps report that determined that 80% of the 401 Marines killed in Iraq between April 2004 and June 2005 might have been saved if the Interceptor OTV body armor they were wearing was more effective. The Army has declined to comment on the report because doing so could aid the enemy, an Army spokesman has repeatedly said.
Note to Pinnacle: If you want to save lives, you’re going to have to pony up some more dough like Interceptor OTV.
UPDATE: Daily Kos has more.
We can disagree with the rational for going in to Iraq in the first place, and whether or not we should stay, or under which circumstances we should withdraw.
But Jezus Fuck! We're spending $200 billion a year (or more, depending on who's numbers you follow) on the war on terrah. Why the hell are we sending these guys over there without (or with inadequate) body armor? A month or so back Murtha said there was 40,000 marines over there with NO BODY ARMOR AT ALL. What the fuck?!?
I think Bush should be required to go around without benefit of body armor or the secret service until every single combat troop on the ground has proper armor. Same with every member of congress. I bet it would get solved in about 5 minutes then.
Rumsfeld should be tried for accessory to murder for every troop that dies without adequate body armor, that hypocritical fuck.
This is just completely unjustifiable and disgraceful.