The New Road

Armor scandal : Do something about it.

The public is seemingly surprised once again that the situation in Iraq for our troops is abysmal. Here is a portion story from Fox:

In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers in Kuwait preparing to go into Iraq complained to Rumsfeld on Wednesday about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.

"You go to war with the Army you have," Rumsfeld replied, "not the Army you might want or wish to have."

The guardsman who questioned Rumsfeld on the vehicle armor, Spc. Thomas Wilson, had consulted earlier with a Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter who is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team.

The reporter, Edward Lee Pitts, said he had worked with guardsmen after being told reporters would not be allowed to ask Rumsfeld any questions, Pitts wrote in an e-mail to co-workers sent Wednesday.

Military officials said Thursday they were working hard to upgrade the armor on Army vehicles in Iraq, with nearly three-fourths of the Humvees in the theater now completed.

The implication is that we should care more about the fact that he was prompted by some liberal hippie reporter type guy, than the fact that he is being asked to do his job without the proper resources.

This all gets me pretty pissed off. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and say what's right. We all cheer at movies when a character does this because we know they will pay the price. And making people pay a price for telling the truth is what this adminstration does best. Believe me, Thomas Wilson is going to pay a price for his insolence. He knows that. I know that. The administration knows that. Any thinking person knows that. He had the courage to bring it up anyway. Why? Because it's important. Because he and many other brave soldies could die needlessly because of the arrogance and incompetence of this administration's handling of the Iraq war.

That he is going to pay the price angers me, of course. But what angers me more is the response from the public and the media. Which is really more of a dismissal than a response. You have people who say up and down that they 'support the troops', and yet don't listen when the troops tell them directly that the situation is really bad there. They don't take action. They don't call their congressman. They take the Fox angle and say that this is just some liberal bellyaching or something like that. And that makes me angry.

How can you dare to say you support the troops and not listen to them? If you have any sense at all you should get on the phone to your congressman today and give them a piece of your mind. If we are going to fight this war then the troops need the best equipment and training money can buy. It's not enough just to put a yellow ribbon on your car, you actually have to do something to support the troops. Your government is failing you. If you really care then act. Otherwise take the ribbon down because you could care less.

I mailed my congressman, have you? If you don't do something real today to drive home the message that Wilson sent us then you don't support our troops. Period.

I'll make it easy on you. Here is a link to the Senate. Here is a link to the House. And here is an email link for the President.