Posted: 12/22/2004 3:44:35 AM EDT
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This letter was printed in the 21 December, 2004, issue of the Charleston, SC, Post & Courier: ******************************************************
(The writer's name was printed in the paper. I just wouldn't feel right posting someone else's name on the internet) ******************************************************* A couple points in follow-up: 1. The original question was fed to the soldier by a reporter who was fishing for a story. He got what he was after. 2. The media is desperate for anything to show the Bush administration in a bad light. For example, Kerick was dropped as a nominee for Homeland Security Director, but there are still almost daily news stories about him. Since he is no longer being considered for the post everything else is moot. Why keep hammering it day after day? 3. What is the real situation with up-armored Humvees? All I can say is that I’m not there. By the nature of the vehicle it will never be as safe as riding inside an Abrams, and if it was you wouldn’t be able to move it. What would be the result of a group of soldiers getting hammered in an ambush and their vehicles breaking down, then finding out that they did unauthorized mods, adding thousands of pounds to their rides? There are design limits. That’s why we don’t hang a Hellfire missile under a Shadow TUAV. 4. The general news media is determined to paint the whole Iraq situation as a disaster. They don’t report that the vast majority of the country is stable and quiet. The focus is on the few trouble spots. That’s all they feed us. It’s the same style reporting as during the Vietnam war. These days we want perfection, zero mistakes, and no casualties. With that kind of thinking there would have been no Normandy Invasion, no landing on Iwo Jima. I don’t mean to make light of our losses and the sacrifices made by our folks in uniform. You guys know me better than that. According to the D-Day Museum (http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm#casualities/) these figures represent our losses on June 6, 1944:
Actually, Eisenhower was expecting far higher casualties, especially among our airborne forces, yet he gave the order to go ahead. The problems we have in Iraq are being caused by deposed Baathists and imported terrorists from other countries. If we got a handle on those guys and things stabilized in those trouble spots we’d still see stories about a guy whose toilet is clogged and it’s all our fault. It’s naïve to expect anything else from the likes of Dan Rather and Peter Jennings. |
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quote: The problems we have in Iraq are being caused by deposed Baathists and imported terrorists from other countries. If we got a handle on those guys and things stabilized in those trouble spots we’d still see stories about a guy whose toilet is clogged and it’s all our fault. What I find real nauseating is that the Iraqi people refuse to fight in any meaningful way for their own --- country --- those pictures of hundreds of Saddam's troops -- surrendering en mass are what those that are loyal to our cause would do also -------- except they just call it quits and go home while coalition troops die -- trying to do good for them , I wonder how long before that gets so old for the US troops before we start hearing about it --------- in the liberal newspapers ??? Sorry behind the news ---------- it already is being reported ------ Bush's less-than-glowing assessment of American-trained Iraqi troops contrasted with his previous evaluations, which stressed progress toward the goal of training 200,000 Iraqi security forces by the end of next year. He's said repeatedly that any hope for a U.S. withdrawal hinges on the ability of Iraqi troops to take over. "There have been some cases where, when the heat got on, they left the battlefield. That's unacceptable," he said. "Iraq will never fully secure itself if they have troops that, when they heat gets on, they leave the battlefield." www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/10461703.htm |
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"...most of these vehicles would be carrying more weight than they were designed to carry" This is a major problem I see. While alot of the Humvees can handle the extra weight, there are alot of specialized Humvee platforms that are already mounted with heavy equipment, (Avenger air defense systems come to mind) bringing them very close to their maximum rating before armor is considered. |
