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[Magnus <stinkfart AT gmail.com>]

On 1/24/06, Marie McHarry <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net> wrote:
>
> I have no idea what's going on with body armor these days. OTOH, troops
> going to Iraq don't seem to have much good info either, and their families
> have been -- at great expense -- buying them armor to take with them
> because
> the armed forces were not supplying them with anything much, at least for
> the first few months.



This only happened early on in the war.  It hasn't been generally true for
some time now.


After the families spend thousands of dollars, the
> Army tells the troops they have to leave the armor behind.



Also untrue.  Troops are deciding on their own to leave the armor behind,
because it makes them more vulnerable (less penetrable, sure, but much
easier to hit)


For a government that depends on volunteers for cannon fodder, the
> information disconnect is hideously stupid.


The biggest disconnect seems to be right here at home.  What most people are
accepting as "the truth" of what's going on in Iraq is mostly (1)
regurgitated urban legends that have little to no basis in reality and
cannot be confirmed by a source in Iraq, (2) stories about conditions that
were largely true in the beginning of the war but are not now (but continue
to be embraced as the current truth for whatever reason), and (3) what we do
know about what is going on over there is largely being fed to us by
reporters with a very politicized agenda.

The number one frustration I hear from troops *directly* over there is that
they are fed up / pissed off with the public perception of what is going on
over there, because it does not reflect the reality that they live and work
and die in every day.

Lord knows it is easy to distrust and resent our government.  But do it for
the right reasons.