Nothing To talk About.
For once I
actually find myself
with nothing
to talk about,
and so I will talk
about nothing.
I spent most of the day
doing nothing but
lying in a hammock
watching the leaves
of green above me flutter
on the quaking Asps
that suspended me
just about two feet
from the earth.
I found myself
wishing for nothing
and praying in a
non-secular way
to someday soon
live in a world
that has nothing
to do with war.
So many young
men and women
reduced to nothing,
young souls who meant
something to so many.
Then I wondered if
old George Bush
was doing nothing today.
The former Commander-in-Grief
who sent them into Iraq
to die for nothing more
than a foothold
in the Middle East
to guard our oil interests.
Was he doing
nothing more today
then chopping wood
or was his mind splitting all
the would have beens
that could have prevented
so many deaths.
I wish for him nothing
more than guilt
for that rush to a war
over weapons of
mass destruction
that turned out
to be nothing.
That could have
been handled
in a much more
proficient way.
Saddam Hussien begged for
diplomacy the night
before the invasion.
How many lives would
that act have saved.
How many kids
were doing nothing
with their Mom's
and Dad's today.
Nothing more then
sticking flags and flowers
over a mound of dirt
not much older then they are.
How many parents sat gazing
with love into the
eyes of a loved one
who stared back at nothing
because all that once was
no longer registers.
How many boys are
sitting in V.A. wards
thinking about
nothing at all
because they
had insufficient armor
on their Humvees
or body to protect
a brain that used
to think about
having something else
to do when they got home.
I'm sure George Bush always
had the proper equipment
when he attacked a load
of wood at the ranch,
gloves thick enough to
protect from callouses,
eye wear to protect his sight,
perhaps some steel-toed shoes
in case the axe slipped.
But our boys went for years
into battles without proper armor,
with almost nothing to
protect them from I.E.D.'s
and got nothing in return
except flag draped coffins
and maimed brains.
Remember what Rumsfield said about
having the proper armor....
"A lot of us are getting ready to
move north relatively soon," said Wilson,
an airplane mechanic with the Tennessee Army National Guard,
according to a transcript of the meeting released by the Pentagon.
"Our vehicles are not armored. We're digging pieces of rusted scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass that's already been shot up . . .
picking the best out of this scrap to put on our vehicles
to take into combat. We do not have proper . . . vehicles to carry with us north."
Rumsfeld replied: "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
He added: "If you think about it, you can have all the armor
in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up."
Another soldier, from a logistical support unit based at Fort Bragg, N.C., complained that she was being kept in the Army against her wishes by a Pentagon "stop-loss" order.
"It is something you prefer not to have to use, obviously, in a perfect world," Rumsfeld responded. "It's been used as little as possible." ????? *(Three four and five terms of duty in a war zone???)
When a third soldier, from the Idaho Army National Guard, complained that Guard units were being issued "antiquated" equipment inferior to that given to regular Army units,
Rumsfeld said that the Army is trying to be equitable but that somebody has to get the older gear.
The one question that seemed to give Rumsfeld pause came from a lieutenant colonel who said that many of the soldiers in his unit are having trouble receiving all the pay due them, causing problems for their families back home who are being pestered by collection agencies.
credit to: Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page A01
MSNBC.com reported earlier this year
that the Army was aware that Humvees
were under-protected as far back as 1993
but was still officially advising soldiers as
recently as March to put sandbags on the
floorboards to deaden the impact of mine explosions.
Rumsfeld promised that steps were also
being taken to deal with explosive devices,
a leading cause of death in Iraq,
where more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers
have been killed in action.
4 years later
Thousands of Army
Humvees Lack Armor Upgrade
Credit to : Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 12, 2007
Body Armor Shortage
Wednesday, 03/09/05 12am
credit to : B. Seaman- Norwich, VT
We've heard stories from our G.I.s about a shortage of flak jackets. They said that many troops were issued either leftover Vietnam equipment instead of the latest and more effective ceramic plate jackets - or they were not issued any vests at all. We even heard the stories about how some parents, in desperation, bought the latest jackets at military supply stores and shipped them to their sons and daughters in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The number of G.I.s who died because of the lack of adequate body armor cannot be counted. But the question raised by this sad story is, where did all the knowledge go that was accumulated by the Army War College and Pentagon terrorism experts after years of studying terrorism techniques in Israel and other beleaguered countries? Surely the basic lesson of Terrorism 101 was that the Arab suicide bomber would strike where least expected, and our troops were prime targets wherever they were - not just on mythical front lines.
And what about Afghanistan
are we still sending them
in there Ill-equipped,
as we did for so long before.
3 years after the war started????
U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan to get new side armor / Pentagon study found lack of plates cost many lives
January 12, 2006|By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post
(01-12) 04:00 PST Washington —
The Army announced Wednesday that it would soon start producing 230,000 sets of side armor plates and field them over the year to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan after a recently disclosed Pentagon study indicated such plates could have helped prevent scores of troop deaths since 2003.
The Marine Corps has delivered 9,000 sets of the plates to Iraq, a number that will rise to about 30,000 by April, officials said Wednesday. Each set of plates, together with a carrier and soft armor, costs about $450 and weighs about 7 pounds, the officials said.
Army and Marine generals in charge of developing and buying equipment defended the speed with which they were getting the new side armor to troops after a closed-door briefing Wednesday on the matter on Capitol Hill. The generals briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee after lawmakers voiced concern over a classified Pentagon forensic study disclosed last week that for the first time linked gaps in upper torso protection to troop fatalities.