Survivors Praise Body, Vehicle Armor to House Subcommittee
via Cool Blue
Three soldiers just back from Iraq — including two who credit personal and vehicle armor with saving their lives — traveled to Capitol Hill today to tell Congress that when it comes to protecting troops, more isn’t always better.
“We’re here to say we’re pretty happy with what we have,” Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, the 3rd Infantry Division’s assistant division commander for maneuver, told the American Forces Press Service before appearing at today’s House Armed Services Committee’s Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee hearing.
While welcoming improvements in the systems that protect troops and their vehicles, Horst said it’s a misconception that it’s possible to fully protect U.S. troops. “What we do is an inherently dangerous business,” he said. “There are no silver bullets, and there are no protective bubbles that you can put is in.”
Providing better personal and vehicle protection has a “Catch 22” factor, Horst noted. Insurgents will adapt to improved armor by using bigger bullets. And because enhanced equipment is typically heavier and bulkier than what it replaces, it can actually hamper troops’ ability to operate in combat, he said.
Hillary Clinton is just one Democratic Senators who hammered the Bush Administration and military for inadequate armor for the troops although the body armor expert skipped the hearings on the subject of body armor. Mrs. Clinton did, however, make time to attend a Children’s Defense Fund luncheon on that day – along with Harry “Bush is a terrorist” Belafonte – although she was careful not be photographed with bellicose baritone.
