Rumsfeld must go

I am just so extremely agitated and upset at what I read in yesterday's NY Times about a Pentagon study that shows that hundreds of Marine combat fatalities could have been prevented by providing better body armor. And that even now, nearly three years into the war, the Army and Marines have not secured the necessary armor needed for the ongoing occupation of Iraq.

How Rumsfeld keeps his job is beyond me. Why anyone would join the miltary today is even harder to understand. We have let these men and women down, and it is shameful.

From the NY Times article:

The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since the start of the war, and is part of a series of problems that have surrounded the protection of American troops. Still, the Marine Corps did not begin buying additional plates to cover the sides of their troops until September, when it ordered 28,800 sets, Marine officials acknowledge.

The Army, which has the largest force in Iraq, is still deciding what to purchase, according to Army procurement officials. They said the Army was deciding among various sizes of
plates to give its 130,000 soldiers, adding that they hoped to issue contracts this month.

Additional forensic studies by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's unit that were obtained by The Times indicate that about 340 American troops have died solely from torso wounds.

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