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Report: U.S. Troops Short on Equipment in Iraq, Afghanistan
Support our troops? Now there's an idea. But according to a new Defense Department report, that's one thing the administration isn't doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even as the president orders more troops to Iraq, the soldiers already serving there and in Afghanistan lack necessary body armor, communications equipment and other equipment, according to a report summary by the Pentagon's Inspector General made public today.
Unfortunately, it's anything but a complete accounting of the problem, thanks to restrictions by senior officers in the field.
Commanders put limitations on which soldiers could talk to inspectors and when they could be available, according to the summary, citing "scheduled operational missions, safety concerns, and availability of transportation." So inspectors talked to "available Service members" who were approved by their superiors to speak -- 1,100 of them. Furthermore, paperwork needed to confirm equipment issues wasn't always provided to the auditors. "We were not able to validate testimonial evidence against documentation that either did not exist or was incomplete," the reports says. You can read it here (pdf).
As a result, just how many and which troops are lacking the equipment isn't clear from the summary, which was declassified and sent to Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) yesterday. The report remains classified. A spokesman for Slaughter said that she "intends to be briefed on the classified version of the report in the near future."
The IG found that soldiers missing equipment and vehicles sometimes resorted to bartering -- "informal procedures," the report calls them -- among themselves to get what they needed.
Business Week first reported the general findings of the summary yesterday.
Comments (9)
klyde wrote on January 31, 2007 4:00 PM:What goes around comes around!
scribe1937 wrote on January 31, 2007 5:02 PM:So those of us who hate this war are not supporting the troops, eh?
Is this a delicious irony or what?
And this info will trickle back to the troops on the ground. Wonder what they'll think when they learn that only the company commanders' stooges were allowed to talk to inspectors.
jeffgee wrote on January 31, 2007 5:24 PM:The point of the surge is to keep the war going until the next election cycle. Then the GOP will try to use it to bludgeon Democrats. Bush wants to hand it off to the next president. If the next president is a Democrat, all the better. Then the GOP can say that the Dems lost the war.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on January 31, 2007 5:26 PM:The troops are merely pawns in Bush/Cheney's game. Remember, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish to have. Even though Rummy's out, the attitude prevails in the administration. The Decider has decided. The soldiers will be stopping the bullets and shrapnel with their bodies. Too bad Cheney's not over there showing how much "stomach" he has for the war.
This is not new news. Check out the Iraq & Afghanistan Vetrans Association web-site:
http://www.iava.org/
They already have an petition and loads of info . . .
Mark F. wrote on January 31, 2007 5:28 PM:None of this matters, of course. Bush is trying to build a case against Iran that will "justify" the invasion he's building towards. Body armor or not, Bush is determined to escalate this conflict until it includes the entire region. He'll lie about it until the penultimate moment, then he'll exceed his authority and invade and then it will all be too late to stop him. We're arguing about Iraq, but the goal is Iran.
Barry Workman wrote on January 31, 2007 5:31 PM:Same old lapel pin patriot BS from the administration "we're tough guys - and we are supporting the troops". Well the grunts are still getting screwed and you guys are still puffing up your chests and flapping your mouths despite the fact you are all hat and no cattle. You are Pathetic !
Father O'KC wrote on January 31, 2007 7:09 PM:The military has always had two supply systems, one formal, the other not...
Just astounding, though, how many important items are only available informally, like body armor...
Mrs Panstreppon wrote on January 31, 2007 11:37 PM:Where the hell is all this body armor going? The Army placed $60 million in orders for body armor in mid-2004. The orders were part of a total of $2 billion in contracts awarded at the same time.
There is something fishy going on with this body armor business. One company, High Peformance Materials Group, was awarded a $5 million contract for 20,000 ceramic inserts in January 2004 and produced only 346 inserts after a year. The successor to HPMG, Dynamic Defense Materials, purportedly sells body armor but does not have the wherewithal to make it. Both companies contributed to Curt Weldon and both companies supposedly operated out of the same building in Weldon's district.
The stock price of Ceramic Protective Corporation, traded on the Toronto Exchange, soared from $1 to $17 in 2004 after it bought a factory in Delaware that went into the ceramic body armor insert business in a big way. CPC was awarded a couple of whopping big contracts after it announced that it was putting former Joint Chief of Staff Hugh Shelton and former Secret Service Director Brian Stafford on the board.
And that's just for starters.
sweetlazymamy wrote on February 11, 2007 6:50 PM:Hi everybody,
I'm a 33 years old woman, divorced and with children. I work as geography teacher, part-time, so I can use the time to take care of the house and kids and it goes pretty good like this. During the never ending spent in my house there is something that i prefer to do in the meantime that is watching foreign channes on my sport live pc . I also like to see classic movies
. I don't dislike not at every hour but often to see the wheater forecast either
I am pretty happy with what I have and especially about my kids. I just hope to remain in good health, so just an normal happy life.
'll see you
Jessica