[Radix]

"..why did the military brass not make a stink about getting only 450 of the vehicles that we supposedly have such a desperate need for? Especially if the military made a stink about 'giving our troops the protection they need' and it was introduced seperately, there probably wouldn't be a single congressman voting against it for fear that someone in their district dies and gets blamed on them for not voting for armored humvees."

I happened to catch Massachusetts congressman Marty Meehan* ( not my rep. but he is a real POS) last evening on the news addressing some of this issue. His claim was that the Pentagon was full of arrogant military types who are simply set on doing things their way. I actually had thoughts while Meehan was speaking that there are military people who are subordinate to the likes of this weasel and have to contend with this sort of thing regularly. Hence, a "stink" is probably not always considered whenever  the Military makes one.

 

*He is a member of both the House Armed Services and Judiciary Committees.

[Ranger]

If Meehan and Simmons had not pressed the matter hard in March, there would have been no funding at all for M1114s except for 818 in FY05 that Rumsfeld requested. Rumsfeld's handling of this for the last 13 months that I've been actively monitoring is nothing short of criminal negligence.