Here's an interesting bit of accurate coverage of the inability of these
"Humvee" and "Hummer" play toys to actually do what
their manufacturers claim they can do. The politicians that approved
the purchase and use of these impotant toys without a doubt either bought
the lies or were paid off like common Republican crooks.
With retrofit these toys will probably be able to stand up to small arms
fire, absolutely, but the Iraqi freedom fighters are using improvised
roadside explosive devices, often employing shells that have been burried
in trash dumps for the past 40 years. And they're also using rocket
propelled grenades. 'Point being that these toys aren't tanks and the
Bush regime is simply sending his butchers to the slaughter when he
puts them in these toys, winds them up, and points them toward
people who are fighting for their country, their lives, and the lives
of their children.
What we're seeing is that these "Humvees" and
"Hummers" are only good for driving back and forth on
highways going to and from work and home, getting 10 miles to the
gallon, rolling over and killing innocent people on the highway.
That's all they're good for.
http://shns.abc15.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=HUMVEES-12-30-04&cat=II
Humvees linked to 1 in 5 U.S. deaths in Iraq
By LISA HOFFMAN
December 30, 2004
In the earliest days of the war in Iraq, an enemy grenade destroyed
the Humvee carrying Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch and four other soldiers
caught in an ambush in Nasiriyah.
Though Lynch was spared, the others died.
Last week, nearly two years later, Army 1st Lt. Christopher Barnett,
32, of Baton Rouge, La., was killed on a patrol mission in the
outskirts of Baghdad when a roadside bomb eviscerated his Humvee.
Throughout the 21-month war, no other piece of military materiel has
been associated with so many U.S. fatalities.
According to a Scripps Howard News Service study, at least 1 in 5 of
the 1,320 fallen American troops has died in incidents involving the
ubiquitous vehicles.
Hundreds more have been wounded in them.
No other piece of war equipment has been the focus of as much
criticism, as well.
When Congress returns in January, high on its agenda will be hearings
into what some lawmakers, frustrated troops and anxious families say
have been the needless deaths and maimings of GIs - particularly early
in the war - while traveling in vehicles unduly vulnerable to bombs
and other attacks.
Based on official Pentagon casualty reports, news accounts and
interviews, the Scripps Howard study found at least 275 troop deaths
have been associated with Humvees.
By far, most of those fatalities came when a Humvee crossed paths with
a roadside bomb planted by insurgents and often detonated by remote
control.
On Dec. 3, for instance, that was the fate of Army Staff Sgt. Henry
Irizarry, 38, of the Bronx, a father of five who was killed by an
explosion that blew him out the right side of his Humvee in Taji.
Others, such as Army Pfc. George Harrison of Knoxville, Tenn., were
killed in their Humvees by snipers or insurgents shooting rifles and
machine guns.
Harrison, 22, was shot Dec. 2 in Mosul while on a joint U.S.-Iraqi
patrol.
Accidents in Humvees - which are used for transporting troops,
guarding convoys, evacuating the wounded and patrolling - have also
claimed the lives of dozens of troops.
In December alone, five troops died that way, including Marine Cpl.
Bryan Wilson, 22, of Otterbein, Ind.
The married father of a 20-month-old daughter, Wilson died of internal
injuries after his Humvee overturned in the Fallujah area.
Even troops in Humvees that have been equipped with armor are not
immune from deadly strikes.
Two New York National Guardsmen were killed Nov. 29 in Baghdad when a
bomb destroyed their armored Humvee.
One of the two, Sgt. Christian Engeldrum, 30, was a Bronx firefighter
who helped raise the first American flag at Ground Zero after the 2001
World Trade Center terror attacks.
Never designed to withstand direct bomb attacks or serve as combat
vehicles, Humvees instead were envisioned to provide transport behind
the lines.
As a result, only 2,000 of the 10,000 Humvees initially deployed to
Iraq was armed with steel protection and bulletproof glass.
Instead, most were constructed with fiberglass and aluminum, and
equipped with "soft sides" and fabric roofs.
Since an enemy insurgency wielding improvised bombs took root in
mid-2003, the Pentagon has scrambled to buy thousands more hardened
Humvees and upgrade thousands more with steel plates and other
protection.
Even so, some U.S. troops continue to use vehicles with less to shield
them against bombs and bullets than the average family sedan.
They also complain that even hardened Humvees leave the vehicles'
floors insufficiently protected.
But military officials say that an impenetrable Humvee is neither
possible nor desirable.
Too much steel can make a Humvee unwieldy and dangerously heavy.
And even mighty M1A1 Abrams tanks can be felled by a rocket-propelled
grenade.
Instead, the Humvee armoring is designed to deflect much of an
explosive blast and to give troops precious seconds to bail out or
take cover, they say.
But after a National Guardsman complained in December to Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that his unit had to scrounge in Kuwaiti
junkyards to find material to reinforce their Humvees - triggering a
firestorm of criticism on Capitol Hill and elsewhere - the Army
announced a $4 billion program to armor all its vehicles, including
trucks.
The Pentagon now says that about 75 percent of the approximately
19,000 Humvees in Iraq have been armored in one way or another.
Officials said they expect 98 percent to be hardened by March.
By June, the trucks will be completed, Maj. Gen. Stephen Speakes told
reporters.
Asked about the armoring controversy during his press conference
Wednesday, President Bush said he is satisfied that the problem is
being worked on.
"What I know is ... that the Defense Department is working
expeditiously with private contractors and with our military to get
these vehicles armed up."
Scripps Howard News Service
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