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I almost forgot! On the right is a picture of a test print from the highly self-indulgent anniversary shirt. Ryan isn't sure that he'll make it to dinner tomorrow, but if he doesn't anyone who's there can put in a reserve and the remainder go up on BMEshop.
When the Iraq War was first getting started, it was pointed out that one of the things that differentiated this war from previous wars was body armor (more). The “problem” with body armor is that it works — it saves lives. However, it doesn't save you from a headshot, having your arms and legs blown off, or serious burns — it just keeps you alive. So the end result of body armor is a dramatic increase in wounded troops requiring often lifelong care.
In previous wars, you'd usually have about three wounded soldiers for every dead one. However, in modern US wars the ratio is very different — as many as twenty wounded soldiers for every dead one. As much as it's good to be saving lives, one of the rules of guerrilla warfare is that you want to cause casualties as much or more as you want to create corpses, since dealing with casualties keeps your enemy vulnerable longer and “costs” him more to maintain both in the short term and the long term (more).
Now maybe you understand (in horrific clarity) why the US military isn't particularly willing to give its troops as much body armor as it needs?
Perhaps you are wondering what is going to happen to all those wounded children with Veterens Affairs struggling under excessive budget shortages (more, more)? Assuming you can even get anything at all, the “reward” for being disabled while serving the US military is an annual pention of about $8,000 (more), with some states like Illnois, Michigan, and Ohio offering well over $1,000 less. Please explain how someone with permanent disabilities is supposed to live a decent life in America for $7,000 a year, let alone pay for expenses like making wheelchair modifications to their home (more)?
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