[CIMC-work] HOT topic -- U.S. shortchanging its soldiers

[donald goldhamer]

A colleague of mine has a son in Iraq.  He pointed out to me that the Army
has announced that BECAUSE IT CANNOT AFFORD TO OUTFIT NEW TROOPS, it is
extending the tour-of-duty of current troops until, perhaps, October 2004!

The serious shortage of equipment is being repoted on buzzflash.com,
according to my friend, and includes such things as:
 - the army BILLING soldiers for food eaten while in the hospital
 - soldiers PRIVATELY purchasing night-vision binoculars (for their onw survival)
 - soldiers wearing two armor vests (one in front and one in back) to
    compensate for inadequate body armor.

It seems to me that this is potentially the most damaging condemnation of
the Bush crowd to its key supporters that I have heard of.  It needs to be
checked-out, but it might be an important center column feature.

--Don