by Mark Shields
http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=msh... Ten times in the last year alone, the Pentagon has changed its orders for Humvees. Here we are in the third year of the war, spending a half a trillion dollars on national defense, and American soldiers and Marines face enemy machine guns, bombs and, yes, death in unarmed vehicles. Doesn't that make you angry?
To compound the betrayal of the men of E Company who have risked their careers by publicly speaking about the cobbled-together armor that did not save their comrades, Capt. Kelly D. Royer, the company commander, is paying the price for his candor about his men's safety. His fitness report of May 31, 2004, concluded, "He has single-handedly reshaped a company in sore need of a leader; succeeded in forming a cohesive fighting force that is battle-tested and worthy." But after confronting the brass about the shortages threatening his men, Royer's superiors found him to be "dictatorial," with "no morale or motivation in his Marines." To put it bluntly, Royer is almost surely being railroaded out of the Marine Corps he has served so bravely. Why is there no outrage?
Where is the anger of all those stateside patriots with their "Support Our Troops" decals on their SUVs and Old Glory pins on their tailored lapels? Are they too busy fighting for the preservation of their share of the wartime tax-cuts? Does any of them really give a damn whose brother, whose father, whose husband, whose son because of negligent lack of protection will be next to die?
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