GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets

Two weeks ago, a group of Army reservists in Iraq refused a direct order to go on a dangerous operation to re-supply another unit with jet fuel.

Without helicopter gunships to escort them over a treacherous stretch of highway, and lacking armored vehicles, soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company called it a suicide mission.

The Army called it an isolated incident, a temporary breakdown in discipline, and an investigation is underway.

A temporary breakdown in discipline? Or a group of people who have looked the situation over and decided that the support that Bush says he’s giving the troops just ain’t there?

Notice how this is blamed on the troops themselves as opposed to the system that did not equip them properly? Or the administration that claims to support that system and those men? Will we see an investigation into this?

Correspondent Steve Kroft talks to a general, soldiers in Iraq, and their families at home about a lack of armored vehicles, field radios, night vision goggles, and even ammunition - especially for the National Guard and reserve units that now make up more than 40 percent of U.S. troops.

Or

Staff Sgt. Sean Davis from the Oregon National Guard was critically wounded last June when his unarmored Humvee hit an IED outside of Baghdad. He suffered shrapnel wounds, burns, and was unable to walk for six weeks.

Davis said his Humvee was armored with plywood, sandbags, and armor salvaged from old Iraqi tanks.

(Emphasis mine)

But what to these people know….. they’re just there living and doing it

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