Honor the Fallen - Demand the Truth

264 Pages, 4,009 Names

The Senate took a quick break from the Foreclosure Prevention Act Thursday,to vote on a resolution honoring members of the military killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The resolution, which is assumed to get unanimous support and was offered by Sen. Teddy Kennedy, (D-Mass.), is simple enough, reading: “The Senate honors the service and sacrifice of the men and women who have lost their lives in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and honors their families and loved ones.” The idea may be simple, yet the text of the resolution goes on for 264 pages; that is how much paper it takes to list the 4,009 names of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines killed in Iraq and 487 names of American servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan.

U.S. must leave Iraq, retired generals say

Setting a withdrawal timetable from Iraq might be a shaky strategic move, but it would provide a morale boost for service members and their families, a former Army War College commandant said Wednesday. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales Jr., testifying before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee about U.S. military strategy in Iraq, said he has no doubt that a major withdrawal of combat forces is coming because the U.S. has "run out of military options" and cannot indefinitely sustain troop levels. "Regardless of who wins the election and regardless of conditions on the ground, by summer the troops will begin to come home," said Scales, who headed the war college in 1997. "The only point of contention is how precipitous will be the withdrawal and whether the schedule of withdrawal should be a matter of administration policy."

Army unsure of some body armor safety

The Army can't be sure some of its body armor met safety standards, partly because it didn't do proper paperwork on initial testing of the protective vests, a Defense Department audit said. Democratic Rep. Louise M. Slaughter of New York, who requested the department inspector general's report, on Wednesday demanded the firing of officials responsible. But the Army said the gear is safe and the issue is a disagreement over when and what type of testing is required - principally so-called "first article testing" typically done on a product before a contract is awarded. The inspector general reviewed $5.2 billion worth of Army and Marine Corps contracts for body armor from 2004 through 2006. "Specific information concerning testing and approval of first articles was not included in 13 of 28 Army contracts and orders reviewed, and contracting files were not maintained in 11 of 28 Army contracts to show why procurement decisions were made," the report concluded.