This is a bit more convoluted than illustrating simply whether the media knows what “news” is, but I’ll be brief. A report was released that stated that a sizable number of combat troops have died due to inadequate body armor. It was broken on a pro-serviceman’s advocacy group Website called Soldiers for Truth. Ostensibly, Soldiers for Truth carries on Colonel David Hackworth’s campaign to ensure our military have the best of what they need. Hack started getting a little whacky towards the end, I thought, but he always remained concerned for the people in the field, so we’ll leave the who-what-where of that alone for now.
The original story came out of a Pentagon report and was picked up by the Associated Press and seemed to have died there. Then last weekend, The New York Times — that purveyor of anything bad about the Iraq effort — picked it up and were followed by Good Morning America who interviewed some knowledgeable people and then cut the entire story to a blip in order to run an important (my word) and “exclusive” (their word) Howard Stern interview!
This matter also concerns DoD procurement policies, something we’ve discussed here (that ALSO has been ill treated by the media).
The story Our Guys or Howard? is here.
The issue: whether our people have the equipment they need. It also begs a question: at what point does armor (on combat soldiers) become a hindrance?
In Viet Nam I never wore flak jackets (which were NOT bullet proof) or a helmet. I’d been in situations similar to what goes on in Iraq (insofar as heavy small arms fire and exploding ordinance, though the latter was our own … a long screaming story), but never on the prolonged day-in-day-out basis that goes on today, so my opinions on this hardware won’t mean anything as it relates to Iraq.
But if our guys want more, there shouldn’t be any question of when — never mind if — they get it.
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