Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction Message Board

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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction

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To: longnshort who wrote (22510)	12/9/2004 6:48:47 PM
From: cavan	of 90947

The Army has acknowledged that it miscalculated the intensity of the guerrilla war in Iraq and subsequently goofed on the number of armored Humvees it needed. "We do not have as many armored Humvees as we would like," the Army's vice chief of staff testified before Congress in late September. So how is the White House proposing to deal with this? By underfunding the program to armor Humvees. No budget for armor? You've read the story countless times: An American convoy in Baghdad or Fallujah or Tikrit is attacked; a GI is killed and others are wounded. Nearly all those convoys include the all-purpose Humvee, which, it is becoming clear, lacks sufficient armor. Many feature no more than canvas roofs and doors. "We're kind of sitting ducks in the vehicles we have," one lieutenant colonel told Newsday. The Army has acknowledged that it miscalculated the intensity of the guerrilla war in Iraq and subsequently goofed on the number of armored Humvees it needed. "We do not have as many armored Humvees as we would like," the Army's vice chief of staff testified before Congress in late September. So how is the White House proposing to deal with this? By underfunding the program to armor Humvees. There are two ways to produce armored Humvees. One method is to add armor kits to unprotected Humvees. The other way is to build them from scratch at the factory. The latter are known in Pentagon-ese as up-armored Humvees; they offer more protection than the retrofitted variety but take longer to produce. Given that, the Pentagon has decided it needs a mix for Iraq and Afghanistan: a total of 4,200 up-armored Humvees and 8,400 armor kits. It's unclear how many of either are already in Iraq. When asked at a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing last week how many soldiers "are going out on patrol with light-skinned Humvees," the Army's chief of staff responded, "SIR, I DON'T KNOW."

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