Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nntp.kreonet.re.kr!newsfeed.news2me.com!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!harp.news.atl.earthlink.net!anarchy.gov!coruscant!rebelalliance!jedicouncil From: -Özzama Bin Kenøbi- Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.india,soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.british,soc.culture.canada,soc.history,sci.anthropology,alt.conspiracy,soc.culture.europe,sci.anthropology,sci.answers,alt.history Subject: British ex-Empire can't even afford decent boots Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 01:29:05 -0500 Organization: Rebel Alliance Galactic Usenet News Service Lines: 60 Sender: r2-dv8@anarchy.gov Approved: APPROVED - Jedi Council Distribution: Universe Message-ID: Reply-To: Rebel Alliance Galactic Usenet News Service NNTP-Posting-Host: 18.ef.98.6f Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Date: 16 Jan 2003 06:28:59 GMT Summary: May The Force Be With You...Always Keywords: Rebel Alliance Galactic Usenet News Service Message-lD: <91247us0b1moo000236hmb4h35v@anarchy.gov> X-Copyright: (c) 2002 All Right Reserved X-Newsreader: Industrial Automaton R2-DV8 Xref-Trace: 172.31.253.6 X-Ref: anarchy.gov X-NSA-Number: 0000001138 X-Send-Complaints-To: abuse@anarchy.gov XXX-Trace: anarchy.gov Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu soc.culture.japan:323696 soc.culture.china:619983 soc.culture.yugoslavia:437582 soc.culture.usa:1145448 soc.culture.british:874940 soc.culture.canada:400453 soc.history:171147 sci.anthropology:108516 alt.conspiracy:796383 soc.culture.europe:378291 sci.anthropology:108517 sci.answers:14918 The UK might want to consider saving up some money rather than chasing around after Bu$h and his hopeless Cru$ade like a bunch of spineless opportunistic twits... Troops buy own boots for Iraq By Michael Smith The Indepedent, UK / R.A.G.U.N.S. More than half the soldiers due to go to Iraq are likely to buy their own boots and other equipment because the kit they are issued with is not good enough, a Ministry of Defence survey shows. It found that 55 per cent of soldiers and 42 per cent of officers said they found they needed to buy additional kit. Less than half of all soldiers polled expressed any confidence in Army equipment. Most commonly purchased items were jackets, boots, torches and rucksacks. The results of the survey were disclosed as Silvermans, one of the country's leading suppliers of military clothing, reported a surge in demand. Ralph Silverman, the owner, said yesterday that his staff had been very busy since it emerged that as many as 30,000 British troops could go to the Gulf. "We were exceedingly busy before the 1991 Gulf war and today we sent out more parcels to British Forces Post Office addresses than ever." Highly critical reports followed a major exercise in Oman in September 2001 when the Army had insufficient desert clothing and boots to issue to most of the troops. A report by 4th Armoured Brigade, one of the units expected to be sent to Kuwait for a possible invasion of Iraq, was scathing about the MoD's claims that European boots would be fine in the desert. It said: "The official line that troops deploying in 'the cooler months of the autumn' did not require [desert boots] was disingenuous when temperatures were regularly over 45C, boots were melting and foot rot was a major issue." A National Audit Office report said the soldiers' combat suits were not robust enough to cope with the sand. Mr Silverman said that American army issue desert boots were among the items most frequently bought by British troops. "They are professional soldiers and they know exactly what they want," he said. An Army spokesman said soldiers had been buying their own equipment "since time immemorial". He said it was not clear from the survey why so many were doing so, but if it was because equipment was not good enough measures would be taken to improve the situation.