'We're killing ourselves'

This afternoon, I watched the three-part documentary, Off to War, about an Arkansas National Guard Unit that headed to Iraq this spring. It should be renamed Scenes From an Overstreched Army. Or maybe, How We Screw Our Citizen-Soldiers.

During their training, one soldier pointed out that their first truck was built in the mid-1950s. They did have some newer ones--from the Vietnam-era. Later, as they were about to move from Kuwait into Iraq--a base in Taji--one soldier pointed that they had 45 Humvees; a total of four were armored. Their heavy trucks didn't have armor either.

"I have no idea why the United States Army would make us deploy with this old crap," says one officer. "And I think that they're going to quickly understand that when half of it breaks down to [our base in Iraq] that it's not a good idea to deploy a National Guard Unit with Vietnam-era equipment."

The soldiers did try welding steel to doors. "We only had a limited supply," said one GI. "So we've had to resort to these old bullet-proof vests," which were draped over doors. "Honestly, I don't feel too comfortable doing that, but we gotta use what we can."

The film shows one truck breaking down in route to the base.

In another scene, the soldiers go to secure a Iraqi ammo dump--that has been left unguarded for a year. "I don't why somebody hasn't been on top of this," says one officer. "By not securing this we're killing overselves." The officer enters a bunker. "There were mortars in this one. But there's nothing left in the bunker. So they evidently picked it clean."

And then there's the issue of their training. As their commander put it, "You're supposed to train for the worst and hope for the best. Well, we were trained for the best situation and ran into the worst." Another said, "We what we were supposed to be doing is security and stability"--they're engineers, trained for humanitarian operations. "We've basically tossed that out the window. There is no security here and there is no stability here. It's basically a full-fledged hot-combat zone."

The film is showing on the Times-Discovery channel.

Comments

[Ralph Long]

As,a former member of the US Army and the
Army National Guard,it comes as no surprise
to us,that incompetent senile old fool Bush
stooge Sec. of Defense Donald Duckie Rumsfeld & CJCS General Richard Myers are
sending our Army National Guard & Army Reserve Units into combat in Iraq with wornout and obselete military equipment,as
the truth is Guard & Reserve Units faced the
same problems going into WW2,and the Korean
War,since they are usually the bottom of the
scrapheap,for this stuff,which I saw myself
back in the 1950s and 19060s during my own
military service,and it is a disgrace to the
United States to do this to our Reservists!

[sonu]

this is a bullshit

[Robert]

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