[Vision2020] Does Bush Really Support The Troops?

[Tom Hansen]

Kai Eiselein stated:

"Focus, Hansen, this editorial is from the NY Times."

I am very focused, Mr. Eiselein.

The Army Times article I posted pretty much negates your claim that the MRAP
is difficult in "maneuvering them through crowded streets" and are "nearly
useless in urban warfare".

If your claim were true, Mr. Eiselein, why would the Army request an
additional 17,000 MRAPs, MRAPs that should have been manufactured and
distributed a lot sooner than next year?

Your applied reasoning is one reason why I do not subscribe to the Latah
Eagle, Mr. Eiselein.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)

-----Original Message-----
From: Kai Eiselein, editor [mailto:editor at lataheagle.com] 
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:04 PM
To: Tom Hansen; nickgier at adelphia.net; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Does Bush Really Support The Troops?

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
>
>