97silverlsc
Dedicated LVC Member
November 1, 2004
New 60 Minutes Report Reveals Shocking White House Failure to Protect Troops
In response to new reports contradicting Dick Cheney?s assertion that Iraq has been a "remarkable success," Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards challenged Dick Cheney to explain why U.S. troops in Iraq are still don?t have the equipment they need to protect themselves in combat:
"Dick Cheney does nothing but read scripted attacks on John Kerry in a desperate attempt to cling to power. What has he done to protect our troops beyond his empty rhetoric and hollow promises? Tonight, we heard yet again that our troops are still not getting what they need to protect themselves. As a former Secretary of Defense, he should have the courage to answer our fighting forces in Iraq who have been failed by his incompetence. Knowing that our troops are forced to defend themselves with plywood and sandbags, does Dick Cheney still believe that we?ve done ?exactly the right thing? in Iraq?
"Dick Cheney, before Americans vote on Tuesday, you have an obligation to answer these questions.
"Why do you keep saying our troops are properly equipped when that is patently false? Why are you forcing the families of our servicemen to send them body armor and other equipment to protect their lives? Why did you oppose reimbursing them for the costs of this equipment? How many Humvees still lack the steel plating they need to protect themselves from enemy attacks? What steps have you personally taken to ensure that troops on the ground have the equipment that they need?"
IN OCTOBER, STILL "EXTENSIVE PROBLEM" WITH LACK OF ARMOR
Still "Extensive Problem" With Lack of Armor for Military in Iraq. "When the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National Guard was preparing to leave for Iraq in February, relatives of the soldiers offered to pay to weld steel plates on the unit's trucks to protect against roadside bombs. The Army told them not to, because it would provide better protection in Iraq, relatives said. Seven months later, many of the company's trucks still have no armor, soldiers and relatives said, despite running some of the most dangerous missions in Iraq and incurring the highest rate of injuries and deaths among the Illinois units deployed there. ?This problem is very extensive,? said Paul Rieckhoff, a former infantry platoon leader with the Florida National Guard in Iraq who now runs an organization called Operation Truth, an advocacy group for soldiers and veterans." [New York Times, 10/30/04]
Military Vehicles in Iraq Have Unique Needs. "But the glaring problem for soldiers and families remains the vulnerability of trucks. In a conventional war there would be a fixed front line and no need for supply trucks to be armored. But in Iraq, there are no clear front lines, and slow-moving truck convoys are prime targets for roadside attacks. Gen. James E. Chambers, the commander of the 13th Corps Support Command, to which the recalcitrant soldiers who refused the assignment are attached, told a news conference in Baghdad: ''In Jim Chambers' s opinion, the most dangerous job in Iraq is driving a truck. It's not if, but when, they will be attacked.?" [New York Times, 10/30/04]
Military Mother Said Military Call Plywood-Covered Vehicles "Cardboard Coffins." "Kroft: but Karen Preston has been worrying a lot ever since last summer, when Eric returned home on leave and showed her these photos of the unarmored vehicles his unit was using for convoy duty in Iraq. Lacking the proper steel plating to protect soldiers from enemy mines and rocket propelled grenades, they had been jerry- rigged with plywood and sandbags.
Preston: "these are vehicles that my son and soldiers in his unit had. They were called ?cardboard coffins.?" [60 Minutes, 10/31/04]
Even Armored Vehicles Don?t Have Proper Protection for Attacks Happening in Iraq. "Kroft: these pictures from Reuters television taken ten days ago, show what American patrols and convoys face every day. That was an improvised explosive device, or I.E.D.s, Fashioned by the insurgents from surplus Iraqi munitions and detonated by remote control. There have been more than 9,000 casualties in Iraq more than 1100 killed and more than half the casualties as a result of the I.E.D?s. Yet the U.S. Military still lacks thousands of fully armored vehicles that could save American lives. Specialist Ronald Pepin is serving in Baghdad with the New York National Guard.
Pepin: I?'ve seen a lot of burning Humvees. They have no ground plating. So if you hit something underneath you, then its going to kill the whole crew, you know? And that's just something you have to live with.?" [60 Minutes, 10/31/04]
Families Still Buying Body Armor and Other Equipment for Soldiers. "Before the 103rd Armor Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard left in late February, some relatives bought those soldiers new body armor to supplant the Vietnam-era flak jackets that had been issued. The mother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker, a member of the regiment who was killed in April, bought a global positioning device after being told that the Army said his truck should have one but would not supply it. And before Karma Kumlin's husband left with his Minnesota National Guard unit in February, the soldiers spent about $200 each on radios that they say have turned out to be more reliable -- although less secure -- than the Army's. Only recently, Ms. Kumlin said, has her husband gotten a metal shield for the gunner's turret he regularly mans, after months of asking. ?This just points to an extreme lack of planning ,? said Ms. Kumlin, who is 31 and a student. ?My husband is part of the second wave that went to Iraq.?" [New York Times, 10/30/04]
Army?s Senior Neurosurgeon Said Army Using Wrong Helmet. "Earlier this year, with the insurgency in Iraq building and U.S. casualties mounting, Lt. Col. Jeff Poffenbarger, the Army's senior neurosurgeon here, became convinced the Army was making a mistake that could lead to American deaths. The Army had begun issuing a new helmet, dubbed the Advanced Combat Helmet. Made of a new type of Kevlar, the helmet is stronger and lighter than its predecessor. But the new helmet has a critical flaw, Col. Poffenbarger contends: It is about 8% smaller than the old helmet, offering less protection on the back and side of the head." [Wall Street Journal, 8/25/04]
Helmet is Wrong Kind for Iraq Conflict. "In past wars, this might not have been a big problem. In infantry-style combat, soldiers typically are struck in the front of the head as they charge toward the enemy. But in Iraq, where the deadliest threat is remote-detonated roadside bombs, many soldiers are getting blasted on the sides and back of the head, says Col. Poffenbarger. In other words, they are getting hit in areas where the new helmet offers less coverage. ?I've become convinced that for this type of guerrilla fight, we are giving away coverage that we need to save lives,? says Col. Poffenbarger, a 42-year-old former Green Beret." [Wall Street Journal, 8/25/04]
LACK OF PLANNING BLAME FOR INSUFFICIENT ARMOR
Lack of War Planning Blamed for Insufficient Armor. [60 Minutes reporter]Kroft: "there are still no good answers to those questions. Most of the vehicles in Iraq arrived there without armor plating because the Pentagon war planners didn't anticipate a long, bloody insurgency. 18 Months after president Bush declared an end of major combat, the Pentagon is still struggling to provide the equipment needed to fight the war." [60 Minutes, 10/31/04]
McCain Said Bush Tax Cut Made Less Money Available for Military. "McCain: Idon't think that this war has truly come home to the Congress of the United States. This is the first time in history that we've cut taxes during a war, I think, that a lot of members of Congress feel that this is just sort of a business as usual situation." [60 Minutes, 10/31/04]
Bush Administration Didn?t Plan for Conflict to Last This Long. "Critics who say that disparities and shortages persist fault the Pentagon for incorrectly assuming that American troops would return home quickly after the war. As a result, they say, little was done to equip and train the thousands of National Guard and Reserve soldiers who were called to serve in Iraq and who now make up 40 percent of American troops there. ?I am really surprised that planners relied on the best-case military scenario,? said Jonathon Turley, a military historian at George Washington University Law School who wrote last year about shortages of body armor. He was then deluged with e-mail messages from soldiers complaining of such shortages, 90 percent of them from the National Guard and Reserve." [New York Times, 10/30/04]
Military Leaders: George Bush Sent Troops To Iraq Without Proper Protection.
* "In reference to armored vests, there was a shortage. ? This is a long-term problem that should have been fixed, however, well before the Iraq war started." [Brigadier General David Grange (ret.), CNN, 3/14/04, emphasis added]
* "I visited one of these units in December that was getting ready to deploy. That was December, they were deploying in January, and they were short basic equipment: radios, vests, armored Humvees, et cetera. We're better than that as a nation, and we're better than that as a military." [General George A. Joulwan (ret.), CNN, 3/14/04, emphasis added]
* "Everybody had flack jackets and some body armor, but not the new body armor. They showed us the schedule, and said it was going to be done. They were short at that time, I believe, around 1,400 up-armored Humvees that were coming into the country ? it does leave you wondering why couldn't we have done this before the war, and we simply didn't." [General Don Sheppherd (ret.), CNN, 3/14/04, emphasis added]
* Could not "answer for the record why we started this war with protective vests that were in short supply." [Gen. John Abizaid, House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, in Washington Post, 10/4/03, emphasis added]
New 60 Minutes Report Reveals Shocking White House Failure to Protect Troops
In response to new reports contradicting Dick Cheney?s assertion that Iraq has been a "remarkable success," Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards challenged Dick Cheney to explain why U.S. troops in Iraq are still don?t have the equipment they need to protect themselves in combat:
"Dick Cheney does nothing but read scripted attacks on John Kerry in a desperate attempt to cling to power. What has he done to protect our troops beyond his empty rhetoric and hollow promises? Tonight, we heard yet again that our troops are still not getting what they need to protect themselves. As a former Secretary of Defense, he should have the courage to answer our fighting forces in Iraq who have been failed by his incompetence. Knowing that our troops are forced to defend themselves with plywood and sandbags, does Dick Cheney still believe that we?ve done ?exactly the right thing? in Iraq?
"Dick Cheney, before Americans vote on Tuesday, you have an obligation to answer these questions.
"Why do you keep saying our troops are properly equipped when that is patently false? Why are you forcing the families of our servicemen to send them body armor and other equipment to protect their lives? Why did you oppose reimbursing them for the costs of this equipment? How many Humvees still lack the steel plating they need to protect themselves from enemy attacks? What steps have you personally taken to ensure that troops on the ground have the equipment that they need?"
IN OCTOBER, STILL "EXTENSIVE PROBLEM" WITH LACK OF ARMOR
Still "Extensive Problem" With Lack of Armor for Military in Iraq. "When the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National Guard was preparing to leave for Iraq in February, relatives of the soldiers offered to pay to weld steel plates on the unit's trucks to protect against roadside bombs. The Army told them not to, because it would provide better protection in Iraq, relatives said. Seven months later, many of the company's trucks still have no armor, soldiers and relatives said, despite running some of the most dangerous missions in Iraq and incurring the highest rate of injuries and deaths among the Illinois units deployed there. ?This problem is very extensive,? said Paul Rieckhoff, a former infantry platoon leader with the Florida National Guard in Iraq who now runs an organization called Operation Truth, an advocacy group for soldiers and veterans." [New York Times, 10/30/04]
Military Vehicles in Iraq Have Unique Needs. "But the glaring problem for soldiers and families remains the vulnerability of trucks. In a conventional war there would be a fixed front line and no need for supply trucks to be armored. But in Iraq, there are no clear front lines, and slow-moving truck convoys are prime targets for roadside attacks. Gen. James E. Chambers, the commander of the 13th Corps Support Command, to which the recalcitrant soldiers who refused the assignment are attached, told a news conference in Baghdad: ''In Jim Chambers' s opinion, the most dangerous job in Iraq is driving a truck. It's not if, but when, they will be attacked.?" [New York Times, 10/30/04]
Military Mother Said Military Call Plywood-Covered Vehicles "Cardboard Coffins." "Kroft: but Karen Preston has been worrying a lot ever since last summer, when Eric returned home on leave and showed her these photos of the unarmored vehicles his unit was using for convoy duty in Iraq. Lacking the proper steel plating to protect soldiers from enemy mines and rocket propelled grenades, they had been jerry- rigged with plywood and sandbags.
Preston: "these are vehicles that my son and soldiers in his unit had. They were called ?cardboard coffins.?" [60 Minutes, 10/31/04]
Even Armored Vehicles Don?t Have Proper Protection for Attacks Happening in Iraq. "Kroft: these pictures from Reuters television taken ten days ago, show what American patrols and convoys face every day. That was an improvised explosive device, or I.E.D.s, Fashioned by the insurgents from surplus Iraqi munitions and detonated by remote control. There have been more than 9,000 casualties in Iraq more than 1100 killed and more than half the casualties as a result of the I.E.D?s. Yet the U.S. Military still lacks thousands of fully armored vehicles that could save American lives. Specialist Ronald Pepin is serving in Baghdad with the New York National Guard.
Pepin: I?'ve seen a lot of burning Humvees. They have no ground plating. So if you hit something underneath you, then its going to kill the whole crew, you know? And that's just something you have to live with.?" [60 Minutes, 10/31/04]
Families Still Buying Body Armor and Other Equipment for Soldiers. "Before the 103rd Armor Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard left in late February, some relatives bought those soldiers new body armor to supplant the Vietnam-era flak jackets that had been issued. The mother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker, a member of the regiment who was killed in April, bought a global positioning device after being told that the Army said his truck should have one but would not supply it. And before Karma Kumlin's husband left with his Minnesota National Guard unit in February, the soldiers spent about $200 each on radios that they say have turned out to be more reliable -- although less secure -- than the Army's. Only recently, Ms. Kumlin said, has her husband gotten a metal shield for the gunner's turret he regularly mans, after months of asking. ?This just points to an extreme lack of planning ,? said Ms. Kumlin, who is 31 and a student. ?My husband is part of the second wave that went to Iraq.?" [New York Times, 10/30/04]
Army?s Senior Neurosurgeon Said Army Using Wrong Helmet. "Earlier this year, with the insurgency in Iraq building and U.S. casualties mounting, Lt. Col. Jeff Poffenbarger, the Army's senior neurosurgeon here, became convinced the Army was making a mistake that could lead to American deaths. The Army had begun issuing a new helmet, dubbed the Advanced Combat Helmet. Made of a new type of Kevlar, the helmet is stronger and lighter than its predecessor. But the new helmet has a critical flaw, Col. Poffenbarger contends: It is about 8% smaller than the old helmet, offering less protection on the back and side of the head." [Wall Street Journal, 8/25/04]
Helmet is Wrong Kind for Iraq Conflict. "In past wars, this might not have been a big problem. In infantry-style combat, soldiers typically are struck in the front of the head as they charge toward the enemy. But in Iraq, where the deadliest threat is remote-detonated roadside bombs, many soldiers are getting blasted on the sides and back of the head, says Col. Poffenbarger. In other words, they are getting hit in areas where the new helmet offers less coverage. ?I've become convinced that for this type of guerrilla fight, we are giving away coverage that we need to save lives,? says Col. Poffenbarger, a 42-year-old former Green Beret." [Wall Street Journal, 8/25/04]
LACK OF PLANNING BLAME FOR INSUFFICIENT ARMOR
Lack of War Planning Blamed for Insufficient Armor. [60 Minutes reporter]Kroft: "there are still no good answers to those questions. Most of the vehicles in Iraq arrived there without armor plating because the Pentagon war planners didn't anticipate a long, bloody insurgency. 18 Months after president Bush declared an end of major combat, the Pentagon is still struggling to provide the equipment needed to fight the war." [60 Minutes, 10/31/04]
McCain Said Bush Tax Cut Made Less Money Available for Military. "McCain: Idon't think that this war has truly come home to the Congress of the United States. This is the first time in history that we've cut taxes during a war, I think, that a lot of members of Congress feel that this is just sort of a business as usual situation." [60 Minutes, 10/31/04]
Bush Administration Didn?t Plan for Conflict to Last This Long. "Critics who say that disparities and shortages persist fault the Pentagon for incorrectly assuming that American troops would return home quickly after the war. As a result, they say, little was done to equip and train the thousands of National Guard and Reserve soldiers who were called to serve in Iraq and who now make up 40 percent of American troops there. ?I am really surprised that planners relied on the best-case military scenario,? said Jonathon Turley, a military historian at George Washington University Law School who wrote last year about shortages of body armor. He was then deluged with e-mail messages from soldiers complaining of such shortages, 90 percent of them from the National Guard and Reserve." [New York Times, 10/30/04]
Military Leaders: George Bush Sent Troops To Iraq Without Proper Protection.
* "In reference to armored vests, there was a shortage. ? This is a long-term problem that should have been fixed, however, well before the Iraq war started." [Brigadier General David Grange (ret.), CNN, 3/14/04, emphasis added]
* "I visited one of these units in December that was getting ready to deploy. That was December, they were deploying in January, and they were short basic equipment: radios, vests, armored Humvees, et cetera. We're better than that as a nation, and we're better than that as a military." [General George A. Joulwan (ret.), CNN, 3/14/04, emphasis added]
* "Everybody had flack jackets and some body armor, but not the new body armor. They showed us the schedule, and said it was going to be done. They were short at that time, I believe, around 1,400 up-armored Humvees that were coming into the country ? it does leave you wondering why couldn't we have done this before the war, and we simply didn't." [General Don Sheppherd (ret.), CNN, 3/14/04, emphasis added]
* Could not "answer for the record why we started this war with protective vests that were in short supply." [Gen. John Abizaid, House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, in Washington Post, 10/4/03, emphasis added]
