HMMWV, IEDed
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Posted on 04/26/2007 7:07:34 AM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
Senator Biden [D-DE] took some deserved heat the other day for saying something really stupid, not exactly an uncommon occurrence for a politician. What is uncommon is an effort by a politician that actually makes a difference on the ground, and fulfills a moral calling. Which Senator Biden has also done recently... and so I'd like to cover that road less traveled, instead.
What he has done is going to save a number of lives, on the front lines, in both of CENTCOM's theaters of war. It's late, the reasons why it's late have shocked me, and this isn't where I expected help to come from. The bottom line remains, however: at long last, a festering issue is being addressed - and Sen. Biden deserves genuine, sincere credit and appreciation for helping to make this so.
Defense Industry Daily has been covering the issues with Hummers for years, noting the platform's inadequacy for its role in a theater where IED land mines are threat #1, and covering the global availability and procurement of better alternatives. (Hey, if you call them IEDs, people might think they're new - and not criticize you for lack of preparedness or wartime response against a staple of war for the last 600 years.) In March 2006 my frustration meter overloaded, and I stepped out of my understated DID editor role over here with a detailed "let me tell you what I really think, and why" piece called "Hummer Deathtraps Suck."
I assumed that the professionals in the US military were covering this issue in briefings and committee hearings, and that Senators, Congressman, et. al. were being told of the Humvee's basic flaws and the availability of alternatives by returning troops, or by their military-specialist staff aides after attending yet another local funeral.
Assume. Ass-u-me. Yeah, I know....
Go to Winds of Change and read the whole thing.
It's all a tradeoff. And the liberals are so simple minded that they'll believe this solves everything till they need their next bout of Bush Derangement Syndrome and need an excuse to bitch.
I believe the South Africans ran across this particular problem and solved it in the 70’s and 80’s when fighting in Angola. Ask the congressmen whose districts make the HUMVEE’s why we bought them. And the Stryker for that matter. NIH ( not invented here)syndrome rules in DOD, and NMH ( not manufactured in my home district) even more so. Biden is a true poltician - taking credit from others for doing little.
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