I am far from thinking that America is not making any progress in Afghanistan…
reports of failure are just tactics to perpetuate our presence…

in fact, the war is spreading to the region surrounding it… take a look at this

http://www.inteldaily.com/news.....10-12.html

That being said, with the intensity of that particular (recent) engagement there will be weapons failure. To question the support given to them is one thing (they were evacuating the outpost anyway and that is when the Taliban hit). The weapons themselves are fine – except at that intensity. They would not have had that problem if they had proper support, which they will in the future. Truth is lessons-learned in one war get lost in the next. They had to re-learn it the hard way, and it won’t happen again. Twelve magazines in thirty minutes is a lot. A lot. There is no engineering problem with the M16 series (other than the one first introduced in Vietnam – which they fixed right away with the M16A1 in 1967). You can talk about the knock-down power of the 5.56 v. something heavier, but that is not what the incident was about. Again, God bless the troops that used the M16 original before 1967. Sometimes weapons don’t get the flaws out until it is too late. The F-22 just had electronics upgrades because the moisture in Guam is a lot higher than other places it has been. Thankfully we found that out before a war with the F-22.

In conclusion, the AP / WaPo / NYT needs to hire a vet for their reporting for something called “context”.

One last rant. It is very upsetting to me about the ISAF jokes I read. ISAF means International Security Assistance Force, which is what most of the foreign troops in Afghanistan are under. The Germans joked that it meant “I Saw Americans Fight” back when they were behind the wire and unable to go out. The German government changed that a few months ago, thankfully, and now our German allies are in the fight as well. Lately, though, Americans have been calling ISAF “I Suck At Fighting” or “I Support Afghan Farmers”. It isn’t that morale is dropping because we are “losing”. Morale is dropping because the Rules of Engagement changed because of Captain Thin Resume and now we can’t blow up buildings where the enemy is shooting from. We have to *see* the enemy in the window pulling the trigger before we can hit it with something bigger.

Morale drop is because of Captain Thin Resume and his Nobel Peace Prize attitude toward our Rules of Engagement. I get that he is scared of people with guns. I get it, and don’t mind. He is a “community organizer”, which means he likes to spend taxpayer money on feel-good initiatives. However, he needs to get past that and become Commander-in-Chief. Right now, he is just President. I hope he figures it out.

I don’t post much anymore, but I read twice a day. Keep it up, Steve. You are making a difference.

WASHINGTON — Concerned that U.S. troops are already saddled with too much heavy gear, military officials will not require them to wear improved body armor until manufacturers cut the weight of the new protective plates.

The Army plans to buy 120,000 sets of the advanced bullet-blocking plates this year. This initial purchase of the plates, known as “XSAPI,” will be stocked in Kuwait and be available if commanders need them, service officials said at a congressional hearing Wednesday.

The quality of small numbers of the current plates, called “ESAPI,” was questioned last week in an audit by the Defense Department inspector general’s office. The audit said the ESAPI plates from one body armor manufacturer — Armor Works of Chandler, Ariz. — were tested improperly and may not provide troops adequate protection.

~~The Army disputed the conclusion. ESAPI is the best body armor available and a lifesaver in Iraq and Afghanistan, service officials insisted.

~~netheless, as a precautionary step the Army decided to withdraw nearly 33,000 Armor Works plates in question from an

ESAPI inventory of about 2 million produced by nearly a dozen different companies.

But making the roughly 6-pound XSAPI any lighter is harder than it sounds. The plate has to be thick enough to defeat new and more potent bullets finding their way onto the battlefield, says Joel Moskowitz of Ceradyne in Costa Mesa, Calif., one of the companies making XSAPI.

The Army’s testing methods were backed by the Pentagon’s director of operational testing,
an independent office that assesses how gear performs.

But in an action separate from the ESAPI armor recall, the Army in December voluntarily withdrew just over 8,000 plates because of testing gaps. Those plates were made by Armor Works and other manufacturers, including Ceradyne.

Contracts potentially worth $6 billion for XSAPI and ESAPI plates were awarded in October 2008 to Ceradyne, BAE Systems of Phoenix, and The Protective Group of Miami Lakes, Fla.

~~~`The work was put on hold after BAE filed a protest over the manufacturing schedule.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/.....r_020409w/

My opinion, a light vest that can stop a bullet or shrapnel from full entry is better than none, and soldiers should make the call.

I think we could save a fortune if Obama just war some armor and a helmet, since he’s so active going to photo ops, nearly weekly, often daily meetings with that gay organization. He sure was zealous in Saturday nights speech. Obama has sooo much empathy and relates so well.

You all are missing His Nobel Peace Prize™-winning strategy here.

Meanwhile, I wonder how many of those jams are due to either:

1) Failure to keep the weapons clean, and perhaps on a related note:
2) Sand and other grit getting into the actions of the weapons

The sad truth is most of our weapons systems were designed to fight in “european” conditions rather than in either:

1) Jungles
2) Deserts

Dude, like is that like, guns n’ stuff? Shaa.

I love it when newsies try to get technical…or even if they don’t. Like when Dan Rather referred to the engines on the F-15E in Gulf War 1 as having “thrusterboosters”. The correct term is afterburner and the Brits used to call them reheaters but have adopted the US vernacular.

Incidentally, it was the news reporting on things that I knew a lot about that caused me to question their entire credibility years ago. And it wasn’t just details. When they talked about aviation, they actually made use of myths and incorrect general information.

Once I noticed that, the MSM was dead to me.

Using all of our weapons wouldn’t be “fair” to the Taliban.

And we would win.

Something is seriously fishy about that report.

What I don’t read is what dear leader is doing to correct the situation. Last I heard, he is still wringing his hands and gnashing his teeth waiting on his war committee to make up his mind whether the Troops get the reinforcements requested a month and a half ago or not.

So much for “I will listen to the Generals.”