My favorite news item of the day

[blacbird]

From Associated Press this afternoon:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15131023/

WASHINGTON - The military’s top generals have warned Iraq is on the cusp of a civil war and that U.S. troops must remain in large numbers until at least next spring. But if the winds suddenly blow a different direction, Congress is ready to celebrate with a $20 million victory party. Lawmakers included language in this year’s defense spending bill, approved last week, allowing them to spend the money. The funds for “commemoration of success” in Iraq and Afghanistan were originally tucked into last year’s defense measure, but went unspent amid an uptick in violence in both countries that forced the Pentagon to extend tours of duty for thousands of troops.


caw.

[jbal]

good to know they're not spending the money on stupid crap like body armor.

[Opty]

Body armor is already well-funded. People claiming that spending money on things that are not body armor means that we are somehow not spending sufficient funds on body armor or such things for our troops (thus, putting our troops in more jeopardy via nefarious negligence) do not have their opinions based in fact or reality.

http://www.factcheck.org/article438.html

April, 2005 - The Government Accountability Office reports that the initial shortage of Interceptor body armor resulted from the sudden surge in demand which manufacturers couldn't meet [not funding], due to shortages of Kevlar fabric and of a critical material used in ceramic plates. It also faults the Pentagon logistics system, which it says was trying to ship units so fast (sometimes directly from the factory to the troops) that it lost track of thousands of vests and plates.

I added the bolded part for context.

However, didn't we already "win" when Bush stupidly stood on an aircraft carrier, adorned in a flight suit, claiming victory?

[Papa'sLiver]

That 20 mill could be better used elsewhere I'm sure. Like a republican party legal defense fund. They're gonna need it.

[Opty]

That 20 mill could be better used elsewhere I'm sure. Like a republican party legal defense fund. They're gonna need it.

Heh.

[jbal]

Body armor is already well-funded. People claiming that spending money on things that are not body armor means that we are somehow not spending sufficient funds on body armor or such things for our troops (thus, putting our troops in more jeopardy via nefarious negligence) do not have their opinions based in fact or reality.

http://www.factcheck.org/article438.html



I added the bolded part for context.

However, didn't we already "win" when Bush stupidly stood on an aircraft carrier, adorned in a flight suit, claiming victory?
I was just kidding there, buddy.

[Opty]

I was just kidding there, buddy.

Oh, sorry.

There are so many political threads on here and other boards where people actually DO believe that stuff, that it's hard to tell what is levity and what is a political jab.

Unless there's one of these guys ;) in the post, sometimes it's hard for me to tell.

[maestrowork]

$20 million would buy each of them a nice toilet seat.

[blacbird]

Body armor is already well-funded.

But not, by all accounts, vehicle armor. For the military, it may be better now (although I'm not sure), but it wasn't for quite some time. And for the civilian contractors, as we have learned through recent events, it's non-existent.

AND, at home, training is suffering badly through shortages of equipment (uh . . . most of the good stuff has been sent to Iraq).

But it'll be a hell of a party, I'm sure. Laissez le bon temps roulee!

caw.