- Lack of sufficient armour on both vehicles and body. Not undermining.
- Voting Democrat? Undermining.
- Failing to staff qualitfied civilians for Iraq reconstruction? Not undermining.
- Debating, or critisizing, the Presidents war plan? Undermining. (Hell, Rummsfield would say that is akin to being a Nazi sympathiser.)
Here's a new one from today's Chicago Tribune, that probably falls in the, 'Not undermining' catagory.
When Lt. Dave Moore visited infantry units in the remote, rugged mountains of Afghanistan late last year, the Navy medical officer was surprised to hear from many soldiers and Marines that they had lost significant weight.
After conducting more than 150 interviews with medics, officers and troops on the ground, Moore concluded that the portable rations called "Meals, Ready-to-Eat"--long derided by troops, but valued by the Pentagon for their indestructibility--were not doing the job, causing the soldiers to shed pounds that they very much needed."The standard Meal, Ready to Eat (MRE) does not provide adequate nutrition for dismounted operations in this type of terrain," said an excerpt of Moore's classified report, which was released by the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned. "Many Marines and soldiers lost 20 to 40 pounds of bodyweight during their deployment. At least one soldier was evacuated due to malnutrition and a 60-pound weight loss."
Dr. Andrew Young, a researcher at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine at Natick, said "The MRE is designed to provide the caloric needs of the largest percentage of war fighters," he said. "The issue is operational constraints that are imposed on the warriors that prevent them from consuming the optimal calories."
