The Waterkooler

I had to excerpt this entire article from C-Log today and let it speak for itself:

NYT: Defender of our Marines?

The apparent shortage of up-armored Humvees was a hot topic last summer after American casualties began to mount in the wake of increased IED and RPG attacks on troops riding in these quick but minimally armored vehicles -- a concern that was addressed almost immediately by the Defense Department. However, there is only scant admission in the Times' article that DoD made "vigorous efforts" to rectify matters in the wake of an increasing insurgency, as it instead concentrated on giving the impression that our Marines are fed up with the service they're being asked to provide.

Michael Moss of the New York Times reports today on several Marines who have complained upon returning home from Iraq about substandard armor and manpower in the field.

In returning home, the leaders and Marine infantrymen have chosen to break an institutional code of silence and tell their story, one they say was punctuated not only by a lack of armor, but also by a shortage of men and planning that further hampered their efforts in battle, destroyed morale and ruined the careers of some of their fiercest warriors.

The saga of Company E, part of a lionized battalion nicknamed the Magnificent Bastards, is also one of fortitude and ingenuity. The marines (sic), based at Camp Pendleton in southern California, had been asked to rid the provincial capital of one of the most persistent insurgencies, and in enduring 26 firefights, 90 mortar attacks and more than 90 homemade bombs, they shipped their dead home and powered on. Their tour has become legendary among other Marine units now serving in Iraq and facing some of the same problems.

"As marines (sic), we are always taught that we do more with less," said Sgt. James S. King, a platoon sergeant who lost his left leg when he was blown out of the Humvee that Saturday afternoon last May. "And get the job done no matter what it takes."

The experiences of Company E's marines (sic), pieced together through interviews at Camp Pendleton and by phone, company records and dozens of photographs taken by the marines, show they often did just that. The unit had less than half the troops who are now doing its job in Ramadi, and resorted to making dummy marines from cardboard cutouts and camouflage shirts to place in observation posts on the highway when it ran out of men. During one of its deadliest firefights, it came up short on both vehicles and troops. Marines who were stranded at their camp tried in vain to hot-wire a dump truck to help rescue their falling brothers. That day, 10 men in the unit died.

Sergeant Valerio and others had to scrounge for metal scraps to strengthen the Humvees they inherited from the National Guard, which occupied Ramadi before the marines (sic) arrived. Among other problems, the armor the marines (sic) slapped together included heavier doors that could not be latched, so they "chicken winged it" by holding them shut with their arms as they traveled.

"We were sitting out in the open, an easy target for everybody," Cpl. Toby G. Winn of Centerville, Tex., said of the shortages. "We complained about it every day, to anybody we could. They told us they were listening, but we didn't see it."

The company leaders say it is impossible to know how many lives may have been saved through better protection, since the insurgents became adept at overcoming improved defenses with more powerful weapons. Likewise, Pentagon officials say they do not know how many of the more than 1,500 American troops who have died in the war had insufficient protective gear.

But while most of Company E's work in fighting insurgents was on foot, the biggest danger the men faced came in traveling to and from camp: 13 of the 21 men who were killed had been riding in Humvees that failed to deflect bullets or bombs.

I might be going out on a limb here, but one gets the feeling the Times loves our Marines only when they can be used as a club with which to beat the Bush administration and its prosecution of the war. After all, most telling about this article isn't even its content but the actual mechanics of writing. Notice how often in only the eight paragraphs I excerpted the word "Marines" is spelled with a lowercase "m". Are the Times' editors really unaware that "Marines" is a proper noun? Or, as I imagine, is this simply a point so trivial to Mr. Moss and the editors so as to never have crossed their minds in the first place?

The Marines -- and those of us who honor and respect the work they do -- would never overlook such a thing.

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Well said, C-Log. The Waterkooler has only this to add: to those who would use the unfortunate shortages of up-armor in Iraq as a reason to quit the war - and we know you are out there - I am just glad you were not around to see the Battle of the Bulge, or the Bataan Death March; I am glad you were not around to complain about the death toll in Normandy, or MacArthur's setback in the Philippines, or any of the the prolonged, bloody battles on the islands of Iwo Jima, Leyte, Luzon, Okinawa, or Saipan. I am glad you were not there the day the Japanese unleashed the Kamakazi and destroyed 13 US destroyers.

But then I am reminded of the fact that men like you, men like Charles Lindberg and his America First campaign, have, in fact, always been around. Yes, I forgot that for a moment. But then again, we do tend to forget the politically expedient ramblings of history's losers, don't we?