in Iraq has shown more leadership and demostrated how they are more accountable to their troops then the entire Bush administration.
From where I'm sitting these soliders may have just saved their fellow soliders lives at the risk of their civilian and military carrers and personnel freedom.
Some might say "hey they risked other soliders lives who had to go in their place" and while this maybe true. All the facts aren't in yet so we don't know if the soliders replacing them had better armored vehicles making their(the new guys) chances of surviving the mission a little better or not. Another thing to consider is you can never take a stand on anything if never take it.
It appears that most if not all of the 5 that they are charging as intigators in the refusal of the mission were NCOs. NCOs have just as much responsiblity in the protection of their troops lives as any 4 star general in the armed services. Just as the Army has an absolute responsibility not to recklessly risk their troops lives. But to the Army that seems to be just a slogan now put on hold because the chain of command is looking at those 4 stars every day in the PX window with adoring eyes.
But what these NCOs did that those 4 stars would never do is stand up and say "you can fire me if you want but I'm not putting my people in that type of danger. You can do what you want to me but my people ain't going on a sucide mission."
I going to post some links below and you can piece this story together and decide for yourself.
But I want you to pay particular attention to the actions the Army is taking because of the concerns raised in this incident. If there was nothing to it and these guys were just cowards I can't bet you a dollar to a doughnut the Army wouldn't be taking half the actions mentioned in the article from the MSNBC website.
After reading the MSNBC article head on over to Col Hackworth's site links provide and see how well the army has been treating those soliders that everyone says just loves Bush. There are lot more articles on how are troops are really being treated by the Bush administation and the current military leadership so feel free to read the others too, don't stop with the few I post. I assure you will be able to counter any freepers arguement about how much he really does support our troops.
***********
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. Army will study protective measures for supply vehicles and add steel plating if necessary, a general said Sunday, after members of a Reserve unit refused to deliver supplies down a dangerous route in part because they believed their vehicles were in poor shape.
<snip>
Chambers told reporters that the command will "assess armor" on supply vehicles, which are often subject to insurgent attack, and add steel plating if necessary.
He denied claims by some of the soldiers to their families that the fuel they were to deliver was contaminated.
<snip>
Chambers has since ordered the 343rd to undergo a "safety-maintenance stand down," during which it will conduct no further missions as the unit's vehicles are inspected, the military said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6255918/Are Truckers Expendable?
The brave soldiers of the 89th Company, 57th Transportation Battalion -- out of Fort Eustis, Va. - lay their lives on the line just keeping the beans and bullets moving on the highways of death in Iraq. But on the double-jeopardy downside, they're driving thin-skinned trucks that wouldn't stop a heavy-duty spitball. Fiber doors don't come close to stopping AK-47 slugs, and a rocket-propelled grenade round rips through a truck like a paratroop boot through a barracks window.
To make matters worse -- according to reports I've received from Fort Eustis and Iraq -- these heroes have a battalion commander (BC) who's blocking them from getting the right armor protection to survive their dangerous job. And without armor upgrades to their trucks, the 89th troopers are easy pickings.
So far during the past 30 days, the 89th's convoys have been in the thick of it 11 times. On Aug. 5, an 89th soldier was killed and five were wounded. But while these daring truckers took their lumps, they still accomplished the assigned mission -- driving through a hail of enemy fire and killing seven ambushers along the way.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=86&rnd=210.58200554708844Attacking in the Wrong Direction
My good pal Jerry Sullivan recently floored me with the comment, “I'd rather fight ‘em in Iraq than here in the USA.”
These words coming from the average badly informed American would have immediately triggered a take-no-prisoners response from me. But Sully, who’s badly banged up from wounds suffered in Vietnam, has devoted himself to studying guerrilla warfare for the past 35 years.
<snip>
Another downer is that our troops are at the end of a 10,000-mile supply line requiring both megabucks and megaguts to maintain. Once supplies are shipped to ports in Kuwait or Turkey, they still have to be trucked forward on “Highways of Death” treks, which daily take their nerve-shattering toll in U.S. casualties and destroyed vehicles and supplies.
Fighting the guerrillas in Iraq has worn out our regular ground force to the point that units committed there need a minimum of a year Stateside to recover from their tours in hell. Ditto the Guard and Reserve troops – who are meanwhile not available to defend the home front or put out any local U.S. fires.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=84&rnd=636.7286322670758The Death Wagons of Iraq
In Iraq, a Humvee – the modern military's jeep – is involved in an enemy action or a serious fender bender or rollover almost daily. Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz’s command has experienced 13 Humvee rollovers, resulting in 17 of his soldiers dying. “Nine of the deaths occurred in the last 90 days,” he says.
Gen. Metz says that most rollovers occur when “the driver has lost control of the vehicle.” In a letter to his unit, he summed up other causes, such as “aggressive driving, lack of situational awareness, rough terrain, poor/limited visibility, adverse traffic conditions, improvised configurations and failure to wear seat belts.”
Amen on the aggressive driving. If bad guys are firing rockets and automatic weapons and blowing off mines left, right and center, no one in his or her right mind would drive on the most dangerous roads in the world the way we oh-so-carefully drive by a parked police car on the freeway. As longtime guerrilla-war veteran Lt. Col. Ben Willis (retired) puts it, “The MO would be to put the pedal to the metal.”
The problem is that the soft-skinned Humvee was conceived as a light utility truck – not a close combat vehicle. “The Humvee is horribly thin-skinned and underpowered,” says Army veteran Scott Schreiber, who drove one for six years. “It should be used in roles that don’t call for armor. If the role calls for armor, it’s simple: use armor.”
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=75&rnd=166.56427842573495 Lip Service Doesn’t Stop the Dying
A straight-shooting senior soldier who’s over in the badlands helping beat back insurgents while trying to look after the welfare of his warriors is mad as a raging bull. He’s snorting and stomping because someone up at the top of the Post Exchange (PX) system has once again stuck it to the troops.
“We refurbished an indoor theater, and then PX officialdom decided to charge soldiers for movies,” writes this very unhappy soldier – who asked that his name remain anonymous “or I'll be toast.”
The colonel adds: “The three bucks is nothing to me. But it’s tough for kids on a tight budget – and we don’t exactly have ATMs on every corner. This morale-buster is indicative that the system is out-of-touch. Does anyone think the soldiers watching movies in those old World War II newsreels were charged a quarter?”
While Halliburton and other out-of-control U.S. contractors are scarfing up millions if not billions of taxpayer dollars monthly in places like Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq – where, until recently, disgraced Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was riding around in an up-armored, Hollywoodized, air-conditioned Hummer replete with luxe leather seats and chrome crash bars – the brass hats are allowing our kids to be ripped off for three bucks a flick!
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=79&rnd=517.3659612720382 
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
