Body Armour Controversy

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18720550/

You have to copy and paste, as stupid Blogger's stupid link thingy isn't working.

For troops in the line of fire, body armor can spell the difference between life and death.

Brig. Gen. Mark Brown, who oversees body armor for the Army, told NBC, “The body armor that we issue to our soldiers today is the best in the world. Bar none. It’s proven by live-fire testing, and it’s proven in combat.”

Read the article. The man who invented the "Interceptor," the armour that the army uses, states that the "Dragon Skin" is better. Yet, the army stubbornly sticks with its Interceptor, and has actually gone so far as to BAN Dragon Skin.

Of course, the CIA uses Dragon Skin for its operatives, and soldiers guarding VIPs got Dragon Skin, but for your son or husband or brother or father over there in harm's way, the good stuff is banned.

An NBC News investigation — including independent ballistics tests — suggests there may be something better called Dragon Skin. Military families and soldiers have tried to buy Dragon Skin believing it offers better protection. But the Army banned the armor last year even before formally testing it.

Run that by me again!

"The Army banned the armor last year even BEFORE FORMALLY TESTING IT."

So, if they hadn't yet formally tested it, why would they ban it? Umm...

Nevin Rupert, a mechanical engineer and ballistics expert, was for seven years the Army’s leading authority on Dragon Skin. Now a whistleblower, he says the Army’s timing wasn’t coincidental.

RUPERT: I believe there are some Army officials at the lower levels that deliberately tried to sabotage it.

MYERS: What possible motive would Army officials have for blocking a technology that could save lives?

RUPERT: Their loyalty is to their organization and maintaining funds.

He says that because Dragon Skin was not developed by the Army, some officials considered it a threat to funding of Interceptor and other Army programs.

Shades of "The Pentagon Wars!"

I have a friend whose son is in Iraq right now. Before he left, his family and Sam Bass Theater held a fundraiser so that she could purchase body armour for him. I don't know that what they bought (for $5500) was Dragon Skin, but I do know it was something better than the army supplies to its soldiers.

Are our young men sold so cheaply by the US Military?

For the Love of God, give the boys the good stuff!

I bet that if the Bush twins were going over to Iraq, they'd have Dragon Skin.

Any takers?