"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin
"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams
Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it."--Mark Twain
Stories have swirled for days about 18 Army reservists who refused what some of them called a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel in a dangerous area near Baghdad on Oct. 13. Relatives say the troops called home with a harrowing tale of trucks that were ill-equipped to travel through an area riddled with insurgents. On Thursday, the Army announced that the company's commander had been relieved of duty, insisting that she "is not suspected of misconduct."
Details remain murky, but two early conclusions seem obvious:
• If the soldiers refused a legal order, they should be punished. The military can't function without discipline in the face of danger.
• Regardless of that fact, something is seriously wrong. Veteran soldiers, which these are, don't reject combat orders lightly. They know the consequences. The question is whether the cause is a localized command problem or something broader.
There's reason to suspect the latter.
In cell phone calls to relatives, the soldiers said their trucks were unsafe, that their convoy through dangerous territory would not be escorted by armed vehicles and that the fuel they were delivering was "contaminated," making it dangerous for other troops to use.
The credibility of those assertions is not yet clear, but they echo other evidence - both anecdotal and concrete - of inadequate resources. Among the most serious:
•Unprotected vehicles. Nineteen months after the start of the Iraq (news - web sites) war, many vehicles still are unprotected by armor, the Army acknowledged this week. Since May 2003, more than 200 soldiers riding in everything from Humvees to fuel trucks have been killed by improvised explosives.
•Supply shortages. As early as last year, body armor was so scarce that stories spread about families buying armor in the U.S. and sending it to loved ones in the field. The breadth of the problem came to light in a memo that surfaced just this month. It was written last December by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. He complained to the Pentagon (news - web sites) that he needed 72,000 protective inserts for body armor, and lacked spare parts for tanks and helicopters, threatening combat operations. He pleaded for help: "Our soldiers deserve nothing less while in combat."
•Second-rate defenses. Last November, after shoulder-fired missiles took down a National Guard helicopter, killing 16 soldiers, troops in Iraq complained that reservists were flying helicopters without the up-to-date missile-defense systems carried by some choppers.
That was eight months into the war. It took the intervention of two U.S. senators before acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee ordered a plan to equip all helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites) "with the most effective defensive systems" the Army has.
Shortages on the battlefield are, of course, part of any war. It also is obvious now that the insurgency caught war planners by surprise. President Bush (news - web sites)'s symbolic "mission accomplished" landing on an aircraft carrier is testimony to that. But that was 17 months ago. There has been time to adjust.
Eighteen reservists may soon pay a heavy price because that adjustment has not come quickly enough.
Others may pay with their lives.
As the reservists' story unfolds, the supply issue deserves the closest scrutiny. Sanchez had it right: Troops sent to war must be given the best chance to succeed - and survive.
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