[Vision2020] Does Bush Really Support The Troops?

[Kai Eiselein, editor]

Focus, Hansen, this editorial is from the NY Times.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "'Kai Eiselein, editor'" <editor at lataheagle.com>; 
<nickgier at adelphia.net>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 11:51 AM
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Does Bush Really Support The Troops?


> Kai Eiselein stated:
>
> "What the writer doesn't mention is how heavy and difficult is to get 
> MRAPs
> into place, along with the inabilty and/or difficulty in manuevering them
> through crowded streets.
>
> While they are good at withstanding blasts, their limitations render the
> current models nearly useless in urban warfare.
>
> Spin, baby, spin. To hell with the facts, typical of the NY Slimes."
>
> How much spin do you feel the Army times puts on their articles, Kai?
>
>>From the May 12, 2007 edition of the Army Times -
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> Army to request 17,000 MRAPs
>
> By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
> Posted : Saturday May 12, 2007 8:18:27 EDT
>
> Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren confirmed today that the Army is set to
> substantially increase the number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected
> vehicles it had planned to buy, replacing within two years the 17,700
> Humvees now in Iraq.
>
> "The earlier plan was 2,500, and that's not enough. I can't tell you the
> exact number at this point, but it's going to grow considerably," Geren
> said, indicating that the Army is working to adjust its budget and to
> determine industry's capacity to produce more MRAPs.
>
> The plan to buy more MRAPs, he said, will not mean an end to the
> development, production and fielding of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle,
> which the Army was considering as a replacement for the Humvee, using the
> MRAP as an interim replacement.
>
> Now, according to a Pentagon source, the plan has changed and more than
> 9,000 MRAPs will be procured for fiscal year 2008 and 8,700 more for 
> fiscal
> 2009.
>
> "By September 2009, every single Humvee in theater will be replaced with 
> the
> MRAP," said the source, who spoke to Army Times on condition of anonymity.
>
> The Marine Corps already has more than 100 MRAPs on the ground in Iraq, 
> and
> the Army will field the first of its 2,500 MRAPs in Iraq beginning in
> August, 700 of which are already in hand, Geren said.
>
> The MRAP program has moved quickly and is a joint procurement effort 
> between
> the Army and Marine Corps.
>
> There are eight manufacturers who could deliver variations of the vehicle,
> which has a v-shaped hull to disperse blasts that occur under the roadways
> and are expected to be more resistant to side-blasts.
>
> "This is the next evolution of vehicles that is responding to the 
> underbelly
> attacks that sometimes take place. A natural progression of lighter, more
> effective, more resistant armor both personal and vehicle," Gen. Peter 
> Pace,
> chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.
>
> The request for the newer vehicles was made by commanding general of
> Multi-National Corps-Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the source said.
>
> "Odierno has asked to replace every Humvee in Iraq with the MRAP," the
> source said.
>
> A spokeswoman for Odierno in Iraq said she was unaware of the commander's
> request.
>
> The Humvee has been on the ground in Iraq since the beginning of 
> operations
> in 2003 and has undergone several armor upgrades. But the extra armor
> weighed down the vehicle beyond its capabilities and has failed to
> effectively shield soldiers from the force of roadside bombs.
>
> In a May 2 internal letter to top Pentagon officials, Defense Secretary
> Robert Gates called upon service leaders to make acquisition of the MRAP
> their "highest priority."
>
> "The MRAP should be considered the highest priority Department of Defense
> acquisition program," the letter said, calling for the immediate 
> application
> of "any and all options to accelerate the production and fielding of this
> capability."
>
> "I would like to know what funding, material, program, legal or other 
> limits
> currently constrains the program and options available to overcome them,"
> Gates wrote.
>
> Members of Congress have grilled Army leaders on why more MRAPs were not
> being ordered sooner. In the House of Representatives air-land
> subcommittee's 2008 budget markup, $4.1 billion was allocated for MRAPs.
>
> Gates' letter also ponders why the Army and Marine Corps seem to have
> different plans for the MRAP.
>
> "I am also concerned with the wide variance in approach on the use of this
> capability between the Marine Corps and the Army," Gates wrote.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>