Presidential Debate

[apandapion]

When you swear to your commission or your enlistment, you swear to go when called.  Many were called.  It comes with the badge. 

Agreed. I think a lot of reservists expected to never be called. I really like the idea of having most of our forces as reservists - the idea of having enough troops to fight a two front war active full time all the time seems like an abberation to me. Sure, some of them are training and the others are off in a "police action" somewhere even in times of peace, but surely some of them are getting make-work.

At the same time, it doesn't suprise me at all that the integration of reserves into the iraq engagement didn't go as smoothly as planned. From those who never expected to be called - "Here's your M16! Here's some NATO rounds! Go check that block for terrorists." "But but but I'm a tax accountant" to the logistical nightmares of getting everyone in the field.

And then there's the whole body armor thing. For those not following the issue closely, most body armor can not stop an AK round, which is by and large what we're getting shot at with. However, there is a modern suit of body armor - called the Interceptor, I believe - that can stop an AK round. Long story short, there wasn't enough interceptor armor around for the reservists.

Sounds really bad ... and yet, I have some sympathy for the logistical difficulties. Say a new suit of body armor comes out every 3 years. Do you always buy enough for all of the reservists? If so, don't you think that the companies will come out with more slightly better armor so you can buy millions of suits of that too? What happens to all the suits that never, ever get used? (Because, after all, the reservists arn't getting shot at most of the time.)

Tricky.