Supporting The Troops, Rumsfeld Style

Prepare to be angry...

NY Times: Extra Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows

A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials...

...Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times....

Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. After all the money pissed away on government contracts for a rebuilding effort we're abandoning (not to mention billions 'lost' and Halliburton overcharging the army for fuel) and our troops couldn't be provided the proper and basic body armor they needed. And many who were lucky to have the armor had to pay for it out of pocket. I imagine it'd take an awful lot of yellow ribbons to make people forget this.

This issue needs to be pressed badly. Fire Rumsfeld immediately, do not give him the dignity of resignation (something he long ago gave up), and demand accountability for all those who've died trying to correct his mistakes.