You'll Use The Armor We Don't Provide You, Private!

Unfrigginbelievable:

Soldiers will no longer be allowed to wear body armor other than the protective gear issued by the military in the latest twist in a running battle over the equipment the Pentagon gives its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We're very concerned that people are spending their hard-earned money on something that doesn't provide the level of protection that the Army requires people to wear. So they're, frankly, wasting their money on substandard stuff," said Col. Thomas Spoehr, director of materiel for the Army.

Families of the troops would not beg friends and relatives, run fundraising drives on the Internet, and re-fi their houses for body armor if their kids didn't need it. The military clearly doesn't give our troops the protection they deserve. Randi Rhodes often says things on her show like "They don't want these kids to come! They don't want the wounded to be a financial burden!" I'm beginning to think that she's right.

Sen. Christopher Dodd has been a stalwart on this issue. In fact the Democrats seem a hell of a lot more concerned about the welfare of America's sons and daughters than the Republicans if you look at the record. How many more times do we have to hear stories like this about troops being inadequately equipped? The military has a $493 billion budget. They can't stop the militarization of space and inoperative missile defense systems for a couple days and free up all the money they'd need to make sure everybody in the field has the best body armor?

This is the type of stuff that sickens me. The next time I hear somebody say "you don't support the troops" I'll point them right here. If I can stop from punching them in the throat, that is.