Posted on 04/18/2006 7:10:51 AM PDT by white trash redneck
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli-made bullets bought by the U.S. Army to plug a shortfall should be used for training only, not to fight Muslim guerrillas in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. lawmakers told Army generals on Thursday.
Since the Army has other stockpiled ammunition, "by no means, under any circumstances should a round (from Israel) be utilized," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, the top Democrat on a House of Representatives Armed Services subcommittee with jurisdiction over land forces.
The Army contracted with Israel Military Industries Ltd. in December for $70 million in small-caliber ammunition.
The Israeli firm was one of only two worldwide that could meet U.S. technical specifications and delivery needs, said Brig. Gen. Paul Izzo, the Army's program executive officer for ammunition. The other was East Alton, Illinois-based Winchester Ammunition, which also received a $70 million contract.
Although the Army should not have to worry about "political correctness," Abercrombie was making a valid point about the propaganda pitfalls of using Israeli rounds in the U.S.-declared war on terror, said Rep. Curt Weldon, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the subcommittee on tactical air and land forces.
"There's a sensitivity that I think all of us recognize," Weldon told the Army witnesses, including Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, who led the U.S. Third Infantry Division that captured Baghdad in April 2003.
Blount, now the Army's assistant deputy chief of staff, said the Army had sufficient small caliber ammunition -- 5.56mm, 7.62mm and .50 caliber -- to conduct current operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
But taken together with training needs, the United States had strained its production facilities, he testified.
"To fight a major combat operation in another theater will require the Army to impose restrictions on training expenditures and to focus current inventory and new production on combat operations," Blount said.
As a result, he said the Army hoped to stretch U.S. supplies to supplement the capacity of the government-owned Lake City plant in Independence, Missouri, that currently makes more than 90 percent of U.S. small caliber ammunition.
The Lake City factory, operated by Alliant Techsystems Inc., has nearly quadrupled its production in the past four years. This year, it will produce more than 1.2 billion rounds, Karen Davies, president of the ATK arm that runs it, told the panel. Lake City provided more than 2 billion rounds a year during World War II and Vietnam, she said.
The Army's needs will grow to about 1.5 billion to 1.7 billion rounds a year in coming years, Blount said.
"In the near-term, balancing training requirements with current operational needs is a manageable risk-mitigation strategy," he said.
The Army does not want to repeat its history of building capacity during wartime "only to dismantle it in peacetime," Blount added.
Jeeze Louise, this is ridiculous.
Could there possibly be some kind of incompatibility issue here? Maybe our leaders dont want to put a soldier in a life or death situation where the ammo could possibly malfunction?
Sorry to be a buzz-kill.
this p*ssed me off the last time I read it too.
It is just plain scary to think we have people in control of our military that think like this and are in a position to enforce it. We're at WAR.....Everything should be fair. These insurgents are trying to kill our troops and someone has the nerve to come up with this PC crap...One might get the impression that the person(s) that thought this up are ANTI American to the core.
Sounds like a simple problem to fix.
That was in the back of my mind when I first started posting to this thread.
That is complete and utter bollox.
If we have no choice in the matter if there are no rounds apart from the ones from Israel.
But that is not the case, as already stated they have enough rounds to meet operational needs, and the Israeli can be used for training in the states
And as someone who has served my country including time in Basra you can take your stupid reply that I would rather troops die and stick it where the sun don't shine.
I want us to win out there and the troops brought home
To get their names in the paper and demonstrate their sensitivity.
As is all nations.
I don't expect them to love us, as long as Iraq is not a rogue state or a base of terrorist operations when we leave.
Are mission is to hold the line until the Iraqis can handle there own security.
I believe it lead to the infamous `Black Hole of Calcutta' debacle, didn't it, with the irony--I think the `bullets lubricated w/pork-fat' was just a unfounded rumor.
My father told a story of having to pay the French company Michelin for rubber trees we damaged going after VC.
I'd say that was ridiculous, but here, as silly as `Zionist bullets' seems to us, discretion may be the better part of valor.
Hey, Tony,
Would you mind terribly much if the bullets were made in the US, but were made by Jews?
Just wondering.
Un-freakin-believable.
How can we defeat these murdering bustards with all this PC crap?
That was the `Sepoy Mutiny', my mistake.
I'm just sikh about it . . .
http://www.sikhspectrum.com/052005/1857.htm
Even though this is an old article, I have 2 comments:
1) I remain stunned at how utter stupid and cowardly so many people, especially including so-called "leaders" are in the face of a bunch of 7th century nutjobs.
2) How in the Hell is anyone going to know the difference? IMI will be providing what Winchester calls Q3131A. It is the made-in-Israel equivalent of Winchester's US-made Q3131. It is extremely high quality (accurate and dependable - I've fired more than 1,000 rounds of it with no misfires and no flyers that weren't my fault) and, *more importantly* for this article, it is indistinguishable from the Q3131 except for the "Made in Israel" printed on the box. The cases are marked "Winchester," same as the Q3131, and the bullets are unmarked (not that this matters much after hitting a target, but I thought I'd mention it). I find it hard to believe that IMI would have any trouble in leaving that off of the containers holding the ammo if we requested it, so how the @#$* would the Islamofascists know the difference?
FWIW, I think that we should purposely and publicly use the Israeli ammo, just to show that we can't be intimidated and that we are not PC. Our soft spot is - and has been since Korea - our lack of courage as a nation to engage in a hot war of more than a few weeks duration. The strategy to defeat us is a well-known and easy one to implement - stall, inflict 10-50 dead per week on our forces, and in a matter of a few months our domestic traitors will begin the drumbeat for withdrawal (A.K.A. surrender).
I would not believe this except we are talking about our congress and we could expect this from them.
" Lighten up and think a little."
I thought about it and formed an opinion, decided to recapitulate and came up with the same results. I'm not interested in good relations or any kind of relations with anyone of the Islamic faith....you know...that RELIGION of PEACE...I would be happiest if they were annihilated from the face of the earth.
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