[jaykay]

Surely we can add $100 Million for decent flak jackets to the $87 Billion for ongoing ops in Iraq and Afghanistan?

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[KantianBurke]

"Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has acknowledged the shortage of up-to-date Kevlar jackets but said he could not promise to have them universally available until December."

This is outrageous! We can give away $15 BILLION taxpayer dollars for AIDS in Africa but our troops don't have kelvar jackets? Disgusting!

[Tin-Legions]

The new armor vests, first used by the Rangers, is indeed "bullet-proof" when the ballistic plates are installed in the vest (they are removable-see "Black Hawk Down"). Most of us CS and CSS, along with ALO 2 CA active and reserve units still use the Kevlar vest from the 70's, with only fragmentary protection. Still better than nothing, and the wear of protective gear is strongly enforced in Iraq. Many lives saved by both. I'll take a wild guess and say the KIA numbers would be double or even more had the junior leaders not strongly enforced their use.

This article does sound like another anti-military hit-piece, though. The US military goes way out of it's way to ensure troop safety, we could do better (better armored convoy vehicles, body armor, the like) but no one else in the world does nearly as well!

[laconic]

Would someone tell me why we have billions of dollars for top-end prisons and planned communities in Iraq and no money for protective vests for our own troops? One more crazy thing about a crazy war.

[niteowl77]

Andrew Gumbel's agit-prop works pretty good on FR these days, doesn't it?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Many - perhaps most - soldiers are wearing Vietnam-era flak jackets, which are heavier and unable to withstand rounds from AK-47 automatic rifles, the most common ammunition in Iraq.

Who defecated this manure? R. Lee Ermey proved just the opposite on his show, "Mail Call" on the History Channel. They shot various flak jackets and showed that Vietnam-era flak jackets do not stop AK-47 rounds.

[CPOSharky]

...five months after the formal end of the war in Iraq.

Yo, Andy, who signed the peace treaty to put a "formal end" to the war? It was the "end of major hostilities." If you can't get this simple thing right why should anyone believe anything you write.

Of course if you keep repeating "formal end of the war" some idiots will start believing it.

[tbpiper]

Military Families Speak Out = whining, leftist pissants. Next complaint...kevlar too heavy. I wish they would just shut up and stop helping the bad guys.

[Publius6961]

almost five months after the formal end of the war in Iraq.

By the accessories shall ye know them.
They got as*****S in kiwiland too eh?
There seems to be an international equivalent of the DNC talking points.

The formal end of the war?
Gee, that's news to me!

OK, there might be a difference of opinion as to what "major hostilities" is... it is a bit more complex than what is the meaning of "is"... but.

Let's find out who the two guys are who lost their flak jackets and replace them, shall we?