Recruit your friends to stand up for our troops
WesPAC sent the following email on January 18, 2006:
Last week, I wrote to you about a critical issue: the safety of our soldiers on the ground in Iraq, who still -- after three long years in battle -- don't have the body armor they need to protect themselves.
You and more than 10,000 members of the WesPAC community have already co-signed my letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) and Ranking Member Carl Levin (D-MI), urging them to conduct hearings into the Bush Administration's continuing disregard for the welfare and safety of American troops in Iraq.
I can't thank you enough for your help and support. But now, before we send our letter up to Capitol Hill, won't you invite everyone you know to join us?
Recruit your friends & family to co-sign my letter to Senator Warner and Senator Levin now!
An internal government report recently obtained and published in a story by the New York Times confirms that "80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor."
The Times report continued, noting that "such armor has been available since 2003," but the Pentagon declined to supply it to the troops despite "calls from the field for additional protection."
More than 1700 American troops have died during combat. And according to the Times analysis, as many as 300 deaths could have been prevented if our soldiers were equipped with the right kind of body armor -- armor that costs as little as $260 per set.
We must demand that this Administration pay the costs to ensure our troops get what they need to be effective and secure in their conduct of the mission. This is not about dollars and cents, but about our values as a nation.
In recent days, more reports have emerged from soldiers who claim that not only is the Pentagon falling short of its commitment to equip our troops with the equipment they need, they're even forbidding soldiers from purchasing body armor on their own.
Clearly, Congressional investigation is warranted. When were the needs for additional protection first expressed? Who knew what and when, and why weren't necessary steps taken?
Urge your friends and family to join us in calling on Congress to investigate this critical matter. Our brave men and women in uniform deserve so much better from this Administration, and that's why we must speak out.
Invite everyone you know to co-sign our letter to Chairman Warner and Ranking Member Levin today!
Sincerely,
Wes Clark
P.S. I'm sending our letter to Capitol Hill at the end of this week, and we need as many names on it as possible to demonstrate the strength of grassroots support for this issue. Please urge everyone you know to co-sign our body armor letter now!
