The
New York Times just posted a story claiming that a secret Pentagon study, originally obtained by Soldiers for Truth, found that
80% -- eight out of ten! -- Marines with upper body wounds could have been saved by use of proper body armor.
The story reads like a classic example of total bureaucratic fucked-updom in action: increasing calls from the field wending their slow and laborious way through agencies and feet-dragging studies, as well as wrangling with cost factors.
Read it and weep. (The story also details other problems with procurements that the Times has been looking into in detail, thank God.)
Extra Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows
By MICHAEL MOSS
A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.
...
Additional forensic studies by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's unit that were obtained by The Times indicate that about 340 American troops have died solely from torso wounds.
Military officials said they had originally decided against using the extra plates because they were concerned they added too much weight to the vests or constricted the movement of soldiers. Marine Corps officials said the findings of the Pentagon study caused field commanders to override those concerns in the interest of greater protection.
...
The findings and other research by military pathologists suggests that an analysis of all combat deaths in Iraq, including those of Army personnel, would show that 300 or more lives might have been saved with improved body armor.
Military officials and defense contractors said the Pentagon's procurement troubles have stemmed in part from miscalculations that underestimated the strength of the insurgency, and from years of cost-cutting that left some armoring firms on the brink of collapse as they waited for new orders.
Eight out of ten. Eight out of ten could have survived.
Please, dear God: set the bureaucratic bungling aside. Streamline whatever is going on. I don't give a rat's ass how much these things cost - as much as I hate the war, please ... hit me up with some taxes so these soldiers will survive.
What a godawful nightmare. Damn it! Support the troops, you asshats! This is criminal!
Here's link to a PDF copy of the study.