Body armor for soldiers? F ' em! for dogs? Arf Arf!

[Gabi Hayes]

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000883.html

G.I.s in Iraq may not be able to get armor for their Humvees. Their dogs, on the other hand, are well protected.

U.S. forces are using K-9s, like the one in this New York Times photo to the left, for crowd control and other duties. To keep Cujo and his furry friends safe from dog-hating insurgents, the pooches have been outfitted with new body armor -- kevlar vests that are "manufactured to the same standards" as the ones people wear, according to the Marines.

The armor, weighing seven pounds, protects against small arms fire and stab wounds. And it costs about a thousand bucks a pop -- chump change, the Corps argues in one of their official "news" stories.

[Gabi Hayes]

1. not just over there, which MAY be justified, but here, too, for terrawar

Unfortunately, Congress has treated homeland security as a typical revenue-sharing pork-barrel program, scattering the funds among the states rather than targeting them based strictly on risk. While the distribution has been bad, the use of this money often has been worse. Newark, N.J., used homeland security grants for air-conditioned garbage trucks. Washington sent sanitation workers to self-improvement seminars. Columbus, Ohio, bought body armor for Fire Department dogs.

http://www.9-11pdp.org/press/2005-12-16_op-ed.pdf