[Howlin]

I'll take Door Number 2, Monty.

[Names Ash Housewares]

"The soldier, a Tennessee National Guardsman, is currently in Kuwait scheduled to go to Iraq."

So how would he know for sure what the real deal is in Iraq? He hasnt been there yet.

[NetValue]

The Humvee is merely supposed to be transportation just as the Jeep was. If you want armor use the Armored Personnel Carrier.

As to the reporter who did this, he should be dis-embedded. There are questions to get information leading to solutions, and there are questions to AMBUSH. This smells more like the latter....the reporter just smells.

[bushfamfan]

No one should really complain about Bush bashing anymore. Bush seems fine with it and they are friends of his so let's not get upset with it anymore.

[donmeaker]

Fact1: Armor costs money.
Fact2: Armor replaces payload.
Fact3: A truck that can carry 5 tons net, can carry 2.5 tons of armor and 2.5 tons of payload, or and combination up to 5 tons.
Fact3: Better than armoring all trucks (5 tons of goods is a fair amount, 5 tons of armor is a misleading inadequacy) is to arm a lot, armor a few, and have the armored and armed trucks escort convoys.

Fact4: None of this is new. IEDs were used by German anarchists against US trucks occupying Germany after WWI. And again after WWII.

Fact5: Field modifications tend to add armor, which is passive, and wears out roads and running gear even if noone is shooting at you. Army planned modifictions tend to add more weapons, which only cost money when they are actually shot, but have no effect on mines, or remote IEDs.

[Logical me]

So what is new from those brain dead CRATS. The MSM are the same CRATS that are anti-American, and should be no doubt.

[John Lenin]

Why not require a tank for every troop ?

[Blood of Tyrants]

"Implicit in this question was that Rumsfeld and his Defense Department is either incompetent or corrupt or both."

No, implicit were his questioning of stupid Army regulations that basically say that no armor at all is better than armor installed by "unqualified personnel". The bottleneck is not the production of the armor, but the installation of it. If they would just ship the stuff to the various units with a tehnician that can teach and supervise them while they install it, it could be done at about 10 time the current rate.

[Egregious Philbin]

All of this information was available to the reporter who manipulated the soldier

This line comes up again and again - the soldier was "manipulated." According to Drudge, the question was "planted." This i've said on several threads, and never received a reply - why isn't anyone considering the free will of the soldier? Unintentional or otherwise, it suggests to me that people think soldiers can't think for themselves. This is not the place where i'd imagine that view to be popular, thankfully.

The reporter said they worked on the question together, and that he pointed out the soldier to the Sgt. in charge of picking those who asked the questions. Why doesn't that suggest that the Sgt., and the soldier, didn't WANT to ask the question?

[talleyman]

Bump!

[Always Right]

Humvees produced way too much CO2 as it is. Adding amour makes it much worse. The liberals should be cheering the fact that some don't have the earth-killing armour.

[rahbert]

They should be using the thousands of M-113's stockpiled
in the depots. The humvee is not designed to carry armor
and the stryker is suitable only for intimidating tribesmen
in the congo. Against a determined enemy this is a waste of
money.

That is the real scandal.

[b4its2late]

Will the scheming reporter do the same?

Nope.

Good article. Thanks.

[CyberAnt]

Senator Christopher Dodd was the first critic to jump on the latest bash-Rumsfeld bandwagon.

However, I'll bet if somebody checked on how Christopher Dodd voted regarding the dismantling of the military during the Clinton years .. you would find Dodd was all for it.

Soooooo .. my question for Senator Dodd is this: How come YOU DEPRIVED OUR MILITARY OF THIS UPGRADE AND NOW YOU WANT TO BLAME RUMSFELD FOR IT - when Rumsfeld was not in the Congress at the time and had no control over THE MILITARY HE GOT!!!

[PISANO]

A question [I know THIS question will NEVER be asked] for the ESTEEMED MSM and rest of the Administration BASHERS. IF we had 100,000 more troops in IRAQ as EVERYONE outside the Administration DEMANDS in necessary, then HOW MANY MORE Humvees etc would be lacking armor and HOW MANY MORE of our TROOPS would be dead as a result of that fact???

Of course the leftists, the Dims and the MSM will NEVER ask this question because as we all know they get to have it BOTH ways!!

[Wiz]

The Department of Defense have been working for concepts of up armored hummers from months ago last year. The Department of Defense already knew this and asked the industry for mass production. It is not the fault of the government but the lazy industry that are more concerned about their profits than soldier's life that profits may decrease from sudden decline of production harming the overall profit spent on upgrading factory equipments and hiring more employees. This is the problem of the industry and not the Department of Defense.

[ex-snook]

The problem was not the question but the answer. The answer implied that what was being done was all that could be done.

Armor and bullets are not big-ticket defense contractor items but to the troops in the field they are life and death.

[sailor4321]

Regardless of the obvious political bias of the reporter in question and of his editor, we mustn't forget this is a serious issue which, fortunately, the military procurement system is attempting to fix. Not as serious, of course, as the Democrat administration's gaff in 1944 when it dropped/landed FOUR DIVISIONS of US troops in Normandy without having a clue there were these things called "hedgerows" there. Fortunately, the GI's themselves came up with a field-mod for Sherman tanks which solved the problem --- much as the Guard/Reserve people are coming up with "local solutions"..

[R. Scott]

How did it come about that every soldier (according to our “esteemed” media) expects to be protected as if in an Abrams tank?

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

-----excerpt----

Issue number 3 for 2004, written prior to August 2004, addressed the issue of the armored Humvee. The article states, “As the most popular tactical vehicle today, the M998 HUMMWV (dubbed Humvee) is currently used with many armies. ….few …are operating protected Hummers…. During and after the Kosovo conflict, the US Army decided to protect a small part of its Humvee fleet. The armored version would be heavier – resulting in reduced deployment flexibility…. The US Marine Corps, requiring operational speed for its forces, opted not to protect its Humvees.”

Interesting tradeoff. Speed versus armour. Apparrently the Natl. Guard's mission placed a higher priority on armour. But for the Marines speed was paramount. I would like to see an explaination as why this is so.