multiply this with unnecessary death and injuries to the Army and other services and it’s worse than this piece seems. Makes me think of Rumsfelds response to the GI who inquired about safer vehicles.....I don’t care if it was a setup or not.......Humvees or rather their manufacturers and others with a vested beneficial interest in them have a hand in this...........
The Marine Corps said they couldn't use them all.
Sorry gang. It was a judgement call that proved wrong. There is not infinite funding for any particular program. There are current needs and future needs that are traded off against each other. There are competing defense and non-defense (sometimes un-constitituional) budget demands. Sometimes we make good calls and sometimes we make bad calls. Many of those trashing the administration for not armoring these vehicles would earlier have screamed bloody murder at million dollar troop carriers. What’s important now is to get it right and equip the troops for the known threat.
Oh Yeah! That's it, a frickin plot by Rummy and a few major stock holders to kill soldiers so they can make a buck...Yeah right.......
I think the entire problem of dead soldiers can be solved by not fighting anybody...........
How about safer bullets?????Who is holding that up? Gates??????
The entire premise of this finger pointing exercise is garbage! There is no safe war! Hell, they are killing our indestructible multi-million dollar tanks with cheap Iranian made shape charges. No armor is indestructible for very long on the battlefield. Bigger is not always better, and never lasts the tests.
We are doing more now, than we have ever done before regarding battlefield safety, but in the end, it still takes a better trained soldier with the proper mindset to win any engagement, and building armor to surround him and protect him only makes it more difficult to engage the enemy.
The way you win, is to kill the enemy before he has a chance to kill you. You don't win by letting him blow your equipment up with you inside it. You don't fix that situation by using thicker armor.
Historically, armies of the world have tried this method, time and time again, and it never has worked, not once.
If your goal becomes the reduction of casualties, you have already lost the war.
I am tired of seeing this crap posted, and I suggest people start thinking in terms of winning, and not in terms of being safe. being safe is not the priority, nor should it be.
Good thing we replaced Rumsfeld with Gates.
Good thing we replaced Rumsfeld with Gates.
“Humvees or rather their manufacturers and others with a vested beneficial interest in them have a hand in this...........”
It’s pitiful that it even took until 2005 for the request for MRAPs to be made. In less than a year after the invasion it was obvious that the Humvees were inadequate and at least a short-term response using M113’s would’ve saved quite a few lives. At least until widespread use of EFP-IED’s.