Nice try Roger. One of the most corrupt and lazy Congresses ever (the 109th) accomplished zilch and has not supported our troops since day 1.

Also, where would the funding come from? Maybe they should rescind your tax cut, you lil economic royalist. :-D

I read that the dragon skin is excellent, but the Pentagon is holding it up because they want the contract to go to a favorite manufacturer.

Then again, this really should be no surprise. These chuckleheads have underestimated just about everything related to the War In Iraq — the number of troops that would be needed on the ground, the length of time it would take (remember Rummy’s preposterous claim that it would only take six days or maybe six weeks?), the amount of insurgent resistance, etc., etc. — so it actually makes sense, in a twisted and horrific sort of way, that they would underestimate this as well.

In the two tours I have served over in Iraq, guess how many troops I saw without body armor?

Zero. In 2003, what we had was not the best, but we had it! the stuff we had in 2005 until now is a hell of a lot better. If we can ever get people to push the funding, Dragonskin would be the near ideal stuff. Light weight, SUPER protective. Great stuff.

Now, guess how many troops I saw without weapons?

Zero. We are still using many of the same weapons that we were using in Viet Nam. ( 9MM have replaced .45s, M240s for the most part have replaced M60s)

Guess how many I saw without ammo?

Zero. We were lousy with it.

Vehicle Armor is a different story, but then we have other problems. We went in with basically none. Then soldiers did what they do best, they Improvised. They scrounged every junkyard in Kuwait for scrap metal. Hey, it worked. Looked like hell, but saved lives. Now we are getting armor for all the vehicles. Not only that, we are getting armor upgrades. Problem is, the crap is too heavy for the HMMWVs (Hummers), so we need better trucks. As a side, there is a CENTCOM order that unarmored vehicles are not to leave the secured compounds. So, yes, we now ride in unarmored vehicles ON bases over there, but not off. If it happens it is the exception, not the rule.

Communications gear and Electronic Counter Measures are always a headache. Comm gear is fragile. The stuff we have breaks all the time. For those not familiar with the military, take your cellphone, expose it to extreme heat (115+ F) and constant sand. Then throw it on the ground a few time a week. See how long it lasts you. ECM’s, they can not get them fielded fast enough.

In short, a year ago they surveyed 1100 troops. These 1100 told them all the woes of the 130,000 in Iraq and the 12,000 in Afghanistan. If those 1100 had time to take a survey and answer question, they are not the trigger pullers and truck drivers I would be willing to bet.

Don’t bank everything on this survey.

That’s the existing troops, you ninny. We’re talking about stoping funds for the escalation.

YET THINKPROGRESS POSTERS scream to CUT OFF THE FUNDING!!

Cut off the fundiong will bring an end to all of this they say!

You people are sick.

The Soviets never increased their military spending to match the US – Soviet spending increased slightly, jumped briefly in 1985 when Gorbachev took power, then went down. Yes, even with their war in Afghanistan.

Commenters, if you disagreed with Exley without bothering to do the research to find out if his basic assertion was correct – shame on you.

Cheney’s Five Draft Deferments During the Vietnam Era Emerge as a Campaign Issue

[snip]

He said he “never served” because of deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, which he attributed to subpar academic performance and the fact that he had to work to pay for his education.

He added that he “would have obviously been happy to serve had I been called.”

Away from the hearing room, he told the Washington Post that he had sought his deferments because “I had other priorities in the 60’s than military service.”

“I don’t regret the decisions I made,” he added. “I complied fully with all the requirements of the statutes, registered with the draft when I turned 18. Had I been drafted, I would have been happy to serve.”

But others contend that Mr. Cheney appeared to go to some length to avoid the draft.

“Five deferments seems incredible to me,” said David Curry, a professor at the University of Missouri in St. Louis who has written extensively about the draft, including a 1985 book, “Sunshine Patriots: Punishment and the Vietnam Offender.”

“That’s a lot of times for the draft board to say O.K.,” Mr. Curry said.

In February 1962, when Mr. Cheney was classified as 1-A — available for service — he was doing poorly at Yale. But the military was taking only older men at that point, and like others who were in college at the time, Mr. Cheney seemed to have little concern about being drafted.

In June, he left Yale. After returning home to Casper, a small city in east-central Wyoming, he worked as a lineman for a power company.

At that point, the Vietnam War was still just a glimmer on the horizon. In 1962, only 82,060 men were inducted into the service, the fewest since 1949. Mr. Cheney was eligible for the draft but, as he said during his confirmation hearings in 1989, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was taking only older men.

But by 1963, ferment in Vietnam was rising. Mr. Cheney enrolled in Casper Community College in January 1963 — he turned 22 that month — and sought his first student deferment on March 20, according to records from the Selective Service System. After transferring to the University of Wyoming at Laramie, he sought his second student deferment on July 23, 1963.

On Aug. 7, 1964, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson to use unlimited military force in Vietnam. The war escalated rapidly from there.

Just 22 days later, Mr. Cheney married his high school sweetheart, Lynne. He sought his third student deferment on Oct. 14, 1964.

In May 1965, Mr. Cheney graduated from college and his draft status changed to 1-A. But he was married, which offered him some protection.

In July, President Johnson announced that he was doubling the number of men drafted. The number of inductions soared, to 382,010 in 1966 from 230,991 in 1965 and 112,386 in 1964.

Mr. Cheney obtained his fourth deferment when he started graduate school at the University of Wyoming on Nov. 1, 1965.

On Oct. 6, 1965, the Selective Service lifted its ban against drafting married men who had no children. Nine months and two days later, Mr. Cheney’s first daughter, Elizabeth, was born. On Jan. 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant, Mr. Cheney applied for 3-A status, the “hardship” exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. It was granted.

In January 1967, Mr. Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.

Of the 26.8 million men who were eligible for the draft between 1964 and 1973, only 2.2 million were drafted while 8.7 million joined voluntarily, according to “Chance and Circumstance: the Draft, the War, and the Vietnam Generation,” a 1978 book by Lawrence M. Baskir and William A. Strauss. Mr. Cheney was among the vast majority of 16 million men — about 60 percent of those eligible — who avoided the draft by legal means.

The deferment process proved controversial, discriminating against men who were black or poor, and a lottery was introduced in 1969. President Nixon did away with student deferments in 1971 and the draft ended in 1973.

But the deferments left such a bitter after-effect that the Selective Service says on its Web site (www.sss.gov) that if a draft were reinstituted, it would be conducted much differently and there would be fewer excuses for people to get out of it.

At the time of his confirmation hearings as defense secretary, Mr. Cheney said that he had not taken any action either for or against the military during the Vietnam War. But, he told an interviewer at the time, “I think those who did in fact serve deserve to be honored for their service.”

Of American involvement in Vietnam, he said: “Was it a noble cause? Yes, indeed, I think it was.”

{Keywords: OVP, Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney, Richard Bruce Cheney, Vietnam, Draft Deferment, Selective Service, White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense, Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton Energy, American Enterprise Institute, Cheney and the draft, CIA leak grand jury investigation, United States v. Libby, Harry Whittington,

“WAR IS HELL”
(except for the cinc who has no problem sleeping at night)

In the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld: “You go to war with the army you have, not the one you wish you had.”

But, could this sorry situation (perish the thought!) hurt the troops’ morale?

Could this lack of proper equipment (gasp!) embolden the enemy?

Nah -the guilty party is anyone who criticises the Dear (mis)Leader…

“I am tired of out of touch general officers, senators, congressmen and defense officials who think that giving me some more heavy body armor to wear is helping me stay alive. Speed is life in combat and wearing 55 to 90 pounds of gear for 12 to 20 hours a day puts me at a great tactical disadvantage to the idiot, mindless terrorist who is wearing no armor at all and carrying an AK-47 and a pistol.”

From Blackfive Blog. Google it and learn.