For those of you still wondering why Biden voted for the Iraq war funding supplemental in May, here's some video footage I took in Charleston that I'm just now getting around to uploading.
Sen. Joe Biden held a press conference in Charleston, SC on July 23 before the CNN-YouTube debate, where two local companies had on display examples of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPVs). The Biden Amendment to the Iraq war funding supplemental passed in May included funding for accelerated procurement and deployment of these vehicles, which are four to five times safer against IED attacks, which account for 70% of our casualties in Iraq.
Video embedded after the jump...
One of the vehicles on display was a Buffalo Class III MRAPV (the most heavy-duty of the MRAPVs, intended for bomb disposal work), built by Force Protection, Inc. Last Thursday, two new Buffalo vehicles were loaded onto a C-5 and shipped to Iraq.
The troops who participated in loading the vehicles yesterday told local media that they feel their job is important, because the MRAPs have been proven to save lives in combat. "It's absolutely critical. It saves lives every day when they have them," Air Force Master Sgt. Jared Breyer, with the 437th Airlift Wing, told ABC News.
Download Quicktime version.
One of my favorite concepts in this whole press conference is that you know, sometimes it's worth just putting the money out there and hoping for the best. The Free Market or Die Republicans would rather wait and let "market forces" and "entrepreneurial spirit" coalesce to create the perfect product at a sweet price, while sending our troops to war with inadequate equipment. Yeah, market forces are working real swell on our health insurance plans, aren't they?