tinyurl.com/5e788

http://www.militarycity.com/valor/honor.html

Just a page, that shows those that have died recently in support of war
in Iraq and Afganistan. Does not matter why they are over seas, or
fighting in the wars/actions in Iraq or Afghanistan, just that they have
fallen. And should be honored..

Mike
Alaska

GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets:
  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/31/60minutes/main652491.shtml

 (CBS) Two weeks ago, a group of Army reservists in Iraq refused a direct
 order to go on a dangerous operation to re-supply another unit with jet fuel.

 Without helicopter gunships to escort them over a treacherous stretch of
 highway, and lacking armored vehicles, soldiers from the 343rd
 Quartermaster Company called it a suicide mission.

 The Army called it an isolated incident, a temporary breakdown in discipline,
 and an investigation is underway.

 But the 343rd isn't the first outfit to be put in harm's way without proper
 equipment, and commanders in Iraq acknowledged that the unit's concerns
 were legitimate, even if their mutiny was not.

 With a $400 billion defense budget you might think U.S. troops have
 everything they need to fight the war, but that's not always the case.

 Correspondent Steve Kroft talks to a general, soldiers in Iraq, and their
 families at home about a lack of armored vehicles, field radios, night
 vision goggles, and even ammunition - especially for the National Guard and
 reserve units that now make up more than 40 percent of U.S. troops.

 In this report, Kroft also talks to Sen. John McCain about how pork-barrel
 politics have shortchanged troops on the ground.

 Every couple of weeks Karen Preston gets a telephone call from her son
 Ryan who is serving in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard.

 But Karen Preston has been worrying a lot ever since last summer when
 Ryan 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.

  "They were called cardboard coffins," Preston says.

  There have been more than 9,000 U.S. casualties in Iraq so far –
  more than 8,100 wounded and 1,100 killed. Nearly half of those
  casualties are the result of roadside bombs, known as improvised
  explosive devices or IEDs in military jargon. Yet the U.S. military still
  lacks thousands of fully armored vehicles that could save American
  lives.

  Specialist Ronald Pepin, who serves in Baghdad with the New York
  National Guard, says, "They have no ground plating. So if you hit
  something underneath you, then it's going to kill the whole crew, you
  know? And that's just something you have to live with."

  Staff Sgt. Sean Davis from the Oregon National Guard was critically
  wounded last June when his unarmored Humvee hit an IED outside
  of Baghdad. He suffered shrapnel wounds, burns, and was unable to
  walk for six weeks.

  Davis said his Humvee was armored with plywood, sandbags, and
  armor salvaged from old Iraqi tanks.

  He considers himself lucky that he wasn't killed in the blast. His
  friend and fellow guardsman Eric McKinley, who was riding in the
  same vehicle, wasn't so fortunate. The 24-year-old Army specialist
  died of his wounds. His father Tom said his son was supposed to
  have been discharged from the Oregon National Guard a few months
  before his death, but was held over because of the war.

  McKinley says his son would have stood a lot better chance of
  surviving had his vehicle been fully armored.

  "Our troops need to be protected over there to the best ability that
  we can protect them and it's not being done," he says.

  The Department of Defense denied a 60 Minutes request for an
  on-camera interview to explain the situation. But responding to a
  written question about vehicles traveling dangerous routes in Iraq
  being armored with plywood and sandbags, the Army told us, "As
  long as the Army has a single vehicle without armor, we expect that
  our soldiers will continue to find ways to increase their level of
  protection."

  60 Minutes went to a man more familiar with the problems facing
  the Oregon National Guard than anyone else – its commanding
  general, Ray Byrne. General Byrne was somewhat reluctant to talk
  when 60 Minutes showed him pictures of his men's Humvees and
  trucks, armored with plywood and sandbags.

  "If you have nothing then that's better than nothing. The question
  becomes then again when – when are they going to receive the full up
  armored Humvees? And I don't have that answer," says Gen. Byrne.

  "It distresses me greatly that they do not have the equipment. I don't
  have control over it. The soldiers don't have control over it. The
  question becomes, 'When is it going to be available? When is it going
  to be available? When will they have it?'"

  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.

  But 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.

  Oregon Congresswoman Darlene Hooley, a Democrat whose
  district includes Gen. Byrne's National Guard, complained to the
  secretary of defense. She says she thinks the vehicles are not fully
  armored yet because military planners didn't anticipate an insurgency.

  "We didn't have enough armored vehicles," she says. "They weren't
  manufactured."

  Congress has appropriated additional money for armored trucks and
  Humvees, over $800 million in the current defense bill.

  The Army told 60 Minutes they will have produced 8,100
  fully-armored Humvees by March.

  However, production is lagging behind the urgent need, and the
  Pentagon's interim solution is shipping so-called "add-on armor" kits
  to Iraq, where they are being bolted on to thousands of vehicles.

  But most of those add-ons don't protect the bottom of the vehicle,
  leaving them vulnerable to an explosive device.

  And it isn't the only equipment problem facing soldiers in Iraq.

  Oregon guardsman Sean Davis told us that his unit was short
  ammunition and night vision goggles, and lacked radios to
  communicate with each other.

  He says guardsman were using walkie-talkies that they or their
  families purchased from a sporting goods or similar store. "And
  anybody can pick up those signals, you know," he says. "And we
  don't have the radios that we need."

  Gen. Byrne says stories about families in Oregon having to go out
  and buy for their sons and daughters radio equipment, body armor,
  GPS gear, computers and night vision goggles because they weren't
  being issued are true.

  He said some Guard units are also using Vietnam era M-16 assault
  rifles, which he calls adequate for state duty but not acceptable for
  duty in Iraq. There is also a bullet shortage for training, he says.

  It bothers him, but "there's nothing I can do about it," he says.

  "If I was making the decisions, I would readjust," he says. "The
  soldier on the ground should be a focus. When that's taken care of
  you can take care of other stuff."

  The Army acknowledged to 60 Minutes that there is a shortage of
  radios in Iraq and a shortage of bullets for training, and says both are
  in the process of being remedied. There have also been problems
  with maintenance and replacement parts for critical equipment like
  Abrams tanks, Bradley personnel carriers and Black Hawk
  helicopters.

  Winslow Wheeler, a long time Capitol Hill staffer who spent years
  writing and reviewing defense appropriations bills, thinks he knows
  one reason why those shortages exist, after looking at the current
  Defense budget. Army accounts that pay for training, maintenance
  and repairs are being raided by Congress to pay for pork-barrel
  spending.

  Wheeler says $2.8 billion that was earmarked for operations and
  maintenance to support U.S. troops has been used to "pay the pork
  bill."

  Wheeler, who has written a book called "The Wastrels of Defense,"
  says congressmen routinely hide billions of dollars in pet projects in
  the defense bill.

  And buried in the back of this one, Wheeler found a biathlon jogging
  track in Alaska, a brown tree snake eradication program in Hawaii, a
  parade ground maintenance contract for a military base that closed
  years ago, and money for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial
  celebration.

  By law, these projects can't be cut, so Pentagon bookkeepers will
  have to dip into operations and maintenance accounts to pay for
  them.

  "They do all kinds of things that adds up to: 'We're basically eating
  our own young to support the war,'" he says.

  According to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a member of the Armed
  Services Committee who speaks out against pork-barrel spending,
  there is a total of $8.9 billion of pork in this year's defense bill, which
  would go a long way toward upgrading all the equipment used by the
  National Guard.

  "I don't think that this war has truly come home to the Congress of
  the United States," McCain says. "This is the first time in history that
  we've cut taxes during a war. So I think that a lot of members of
  Congress feel that this is just sort of a business-as-usual situation."

  "The least sexy items are the mundane - food, repair items,
  maintenance – there's no big contract there," says McCain. "And so
  there's a tendency that those mundane but vital aspects of war
  fighting are cut and routinely underfunded."

  It is not a comforting thought for families with loved ones in Iraq,
  who lack armored vehicles, radios or things they need to stay alive.
  It's on Karen Preston's mind every time she talks to her son.

  "He's very pro-military, as am I," she says. "I just want them to have
  the best equipment."

  Some armored vehicles have now been shipped to her son's unit, but
  without protection on the bottom of the vehicle, an insurgent's
  explosive is just as deadly.

  Specialist Pepin on
...

mais »

Its  good thing I'm not in charge.
They'd be carrying 5 gal  jerry cans  all
the way instead of driving a luxury taxpayer
funded truck.
You don't need armor  if  you have a  gun
barrel pointed the right way.

news:10ochth7p4929a4@corp.supernews.com...

You don't need guns when you can wrap things up quick with nukes and
chemical weapons.

These guys are encountering mines planted along the road and hit and
run type attacks from rpg's. The armor would help.

http://cpcug.org/user/jlacombe/tom.html

If you are disgusted with how this period of rebuilding has been portrayed
in the media, then go to  www.loveourtroops.us and click on Done in Iraq.
Email this link so other people can have another insite into the war, not
just who has been killed. I am sure Mr Kerry will love this one huh??

news:s43bo0ltegt2b4rdhc0vii04a2urk9o20p@4ax.com...

"As the Internet makes war more transparent than ever, mistakes of planning
and execution that are part of the "fog of war" as well as lapses of
judgment or poor command are now available for all to see and judge.

"US powerless to halt Iraq net images: When the shocking images depicting
the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops began to surface, it became clear
that many of them were amateur pictures, apparently taken by soldiers using
their own private digital cameras.

"The internet also played a role in the distribution of the photographs,
highlighting the ease with which troops serving in Iraq can now send
pictures to friends and relatives back home.

"The availability of cheap video and still digital cameras and Internet
connectivity bring troops closer to their families and the world closer to
the reality of war. As the article below attests, the testimony of highly
credible witnesses that contradicts statements by military officials
highlights the challenges faced by a military that is executing a war in
front of a camera and broadcast over the Internet. If you are the parent of
a soldier or a soldier fighting in Iraq today, the same medium that can
bring the message from home that makes your day can bring you news like the
story below that makes for sleepless nights."  [snip]

Yeah, Sarge, every little fuckup by the brass is available for all to see.
Yup, every red-blooded All-American kid can hardly wait to race down to the
recruiter's office and raise his or her right hand.  NOT!  I must admit I'd
get a certain perverse amusement watching Dubya win just so Rumsfeld can
continue spinning his wheels.  He knows he fucked up but he won't admit it,
and as long as he and his neo-con cronies remain in office, they'll be
championing this ersatz "war on terror" just like the "war on drugs," with
no end in sight and no exit strategy.  I just wonder how long it's going to
be before full-blown mutinies begin or units here in the States refuse to
mobilize after being sent back and forth and back and forth indefinitely.
There's only so much room in Ft. Leavenworth.  How long will it be before
the bottom falls out, RTO, Colin, Mike P?  I suppose we'll know for sure
when your headers show you're posting via Shaw.ca or something.

"\(!\)" <dest...@llspammers.com> wrote in
news:10ochl5o0oqb554@corp.supernews.com:

Mistakes are not the problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Any individual
mistake is not going to be more than a human interest story, or a local
item.  But the reports coming back are important when taken in their
entirety... they confirm the worst fears of those who cautioned against
this adventure in the first place. That is why Kerry's 1971 testimony was
so important. That is why so many people resent what he did. He told the
truth to power and ripped the mask off the lie that we would achieve Peace
with Honor in Indochina.  

The people who felt most betrayed should have looked to their commanders
for explanations like he did. Instead they looked to their brothers for
support. You can't blame them for that choice. You can only hope they
eventually realize that it wasn't their fault, it wasn't their brother's
fault.... and that command responsibility needs to be enforced from the
ranks.

What a lowlife scumbag the coward awol Bu$h is
to piss on the graves of those he sent to die for
his lies !!

http://snipurl.com/a9r1