Defense Tech has been all over the armor story. While the Humvee armor situation is far from ideal, it's not nearly as bad as the one trucks and the troops that drive them face. And it looks like the Pentagon is dipping into the payroll to fund the armor. "From the accounts to pay soldiers in the field." (emphasis POGO's, but the sentence is shocking without the italics) Congress would be crazy to let the troops go without pay when the money probably runs out in May; a supplemental spending bill will pass to get around that problem. But you'd think there'd be more foresight at the Pentagon in the first place.
In October, Phillip Carter wrote in Slate on why Army trucks need to be armored:
...[in Iraq] truck drivers are front-line soldiers: A supply convoy driving up the Main Supply Route from Baghdad to Fallujah is as likely to see action as an infantry patrol, if not more so because the insurgents know the convoy is an easier target.
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