The first line of defence is...a beer cooler.

[koken23]

Comments

[lamardeuse]

Pretty much sounds like the Canadian military too. The Tory government here loves to jerk off about how much it supports the Forces, but they're much better at sending them to die in Afghanistan than equipping them properly or taking care of them when they come back.

[mirhanda]

Here too, the right wing is all "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" meanwhile, soldiers are having to provide their own body armor. Something's not right.

Sorry, I don't see how

[papasha_mueller]

you've appeared to come to the conclusion the said drinks cooler serves as body armor. Shall it be the case, I guess the local Edissons would opt for something more reliable.

It's Afghanistan, remember? I't hot out, and helicop is mostly metal. Maybe the aircon was out of service, or there was no aircon at all.

It probably was used as a seat because of it's size and lack of dedicated space inside?

[ljs_lj]

mirhanda is referring to the fact that the American military has not been outfitting US soldiers properly, with substandard or no appropriate body armor. Military families had fund raisers to buy necessary items privately and ship them to deployed soldiers. Meanwhile, the conservative politicians crow to the sky about how much they love soldiers and support them. There was an article about this here on ONTDP sometime in the last year.

[wonderpup]

lj cut please

[koken23]

Oop, sorry boss.

Fixed now, I think.

[tabaqui]

For fuck's sake. Wth. Our military, too - billion dollar bombers, body armor that doesn't actually stop bullets.

And fundraisers via celebrity bands and 5k runs to pay for wounded soldier's rehab.

What the fuck are we doing.

[jadehunter]

A grounding of the helicopters put in place in late September last year was scrapped within a month, with Defence saying an investigation had found no issues with the aircraft's AFCS.

Is this saying what I think it's saying? They investigated for only a month? How is that even considered an investigation?

[koken23]

Nope. Worse.

They grounded the choppers, started the investigation, and then a month later put the chopper fleet back on operations before the investigation came to a conclusion about anything. The Case investigations are still ongoing...but you'd never know it, because the helicopters are flying missions in Afghanstan.

[jadehunter]

Holy. Shit.

That's so unethical it boggles the mind. How can they justify that kind of irresponsibility with people's lives?

[koken23]

Unethical it may be - indeed, it IS - but...the Australian Defence Force is really, really stretched. If they had the choppers on the ground still, there would be no more chance of accidents, but there would also be no-one to do med-evac flights when someone is wounded, or close air support in firefights, or any number of other things.

If they fly the Chinook fleet, aging and potentially glitched all to fuck as they are, it's true people may die. If they DON'T fly them...people will die.

I'm not sure there's a truly ethical solution to this problem.

[atomic_joe2]

I like Australia and Australians, I have never got into the bashing that goes on from the British side particularly in sport. Maybe its because I don't like cricket or rugby, but there's no need for it.

[koken23]

Don't worry, man - I AM Australian. My husband's with the Aussie Army, but currently temporarily attached to a UK unit. We've now seen the vast quantities of fail associated with both.

Can I get stabby about Australia now? :P

[lady_borg]

The sport is seriously fun and games, they call us convicts (even though that's slightly historically incorrect) We call them...well loads of things really. But I do really tire of the bashing towards.