Some Marines Declining Extra Body Armor

By ANTONIO CASTANEDA
Associated Press Writer

HUSAYBAH, Iraq


Extra body armor _ the lack of which caused a political storm in the United States _ has flooded in to Iraq, but many Marines here promptly stuck it in lockers or under bunks. Too heavy and cumbersome, many say.

Marines already carry loads as heavy as 70 pounds when they patrol the dangerous streets in towns and villages in restive Anbar province. The new armor plates, while only about five pounds per set, are not worth carrying for the additional safety they are said to provide, some say.

"We have to climb over walls and go through windows," said Sgt. Justin Shank of Greencastle, Pa. "I understand the more armor, the safer you are. But it makes you slower. People don't understand that this is combat and people are going to die."

Staff Sgt. Thomas Bain of Buffalo, N.Y., shared concerns about the extra pounds.

"Before you know it, they're going to get us injured because we're hauling too much weight and don't have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house," said Bain, who is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "I think we're starting to go overboard on the armor."

In Bain's platoon of about 35 men, Marines said only three or four wore the plates after commanders distributed them last month and told them that use was optional.

"That's going to add weight, of course," said Harvey. "You've read where certain soldiers aren't happy about that. But we think it's in their best interest to do this."

Marines have shown a special aversion to the new plates because they tend to patrol on foot, sometimes conducting two patrols each day that last several hours. They feel the extra weight.

In Euphrates River cities from Ramadi and Romanna, lance corporals to captains have complained about the added weight and lack of mobility. But some commanders have refused to listen. In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, for example, commanders require use of the plates. End of story.


But many Marines _ particularly those who conduct foot patrols also carrying weapons, extra ammunition, medical equipment, night vision goggles, food and water _ say the extra armor is not worth it, especially when the weather becomes unbearably hot.

"When you already have 60, 70 pounds on and you add 10 pounds when you go patrolling through the city or chasing after bad guys, that extra 10 pounds is going to make a difference. You're going to feel it," said Lance Cpl. David Partridge from Bangor, Maine.


"The reason they issued (the plates), I think, is to make people back home feel better," said Lance Cpl. Philip Tootle of Reidsville, Ga. "I'm not wishing they wouldn't have issued them. I'm just wishing that they wouldn't make them mandatory."

Back in San Diego for the first time since moving away 3 years ago.

Of note:

1) Downtown is basically turning into fucking Arlington VA. Luxury condos as far as the eye can see. Jewel Box shut down. Tivoli is now a sports bar. New nightclubs with $15 drinks opening up. Chain bars like the Yard House. Went from being a chill yuppieville to pretentious yuppieville, basically. I would not live there if I moved back. On the plus side: they seem to be trying to cover a much more developed area with the same number of cops, which means they are stretched thin. Combined with all the construction projects, this makes for a lot of interesting nighttime exploration.

2) PB and Mission Beach are basically the same.

3) The weather is nice.

4) Star Bar is still Star Bar.

5) Honey Bee Hive is still there, but they have turned half of it into a brokeback cafe. They have the cook from the Jewel Box working there. It is good if you go early but they have like drum n' bass and shit kicking up later. Despite the negative changes, still my favorite bar in the downtown area, except for sunday mornings at Star Bar.

6) Jeff's bike seat makes my ass hurt.

7) GPS takes the stress out of driving around drunk off your ass in a somewhat unfamiliar city...though I know it pretty well it was still pretty key.

8) Satellite radio: overrated.

9) Those little bunaglows on Crystal Pier are actually pretty cool, had breakfast there with FJ this morning.

10) I really miss my special ladyfriend back home, which is kind of nice and pathetic at the same time, but I'm looking forward to her being here.

Bird Flu continues to be an interesting subject now that I understand what is going on a bit better. Here's what I can gather:

1. The virus is literally flying around the globe inside of migratory birds. 51 countries have found the virus and it is killing birds and now mammals like cats.

2. In order for this virus to really be a concern for us humans it needs to learn how to infect us. The virus can easily infect birds because it's hemagluttenin (HA) as an affinity for bird intestines. Once that HA learns to have an affinity for human respiratory systems then we're in trouble.

There are signs that this is starting to happen. One of the samples taken in Turkey showed a change in one of the HA areas, one that has more affinity for humans.

3. Knowing what changes are happening to the virus is extremely important. One could argue that it is the single most important bit of information we as the human race could obtain but some countries are refusing to share their samples in a public manner. Instead they are placing their data in a password protected Word Health Organization website. They hope to make money off of the vaccine and don't want to share thier findings. This will probably prove to be a very costly mistake.

4. The language out of the U.S. officials is starting to get ramped up. The Director of Health and Human Services is telling the media to prepare for long periods of food shortages. Robert Webster, world-renowned virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, consultant to the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recently said "About even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human. As the virus continues to expand its range as it's continuing to do into Africa, India and so on, I think it's got about a 50-50 chance of acquiring those characteristics. It's done so before, why not this time?"

Market's been jammin up but I think it's days are numbered. You heard it here first, Dow to 10500 by mid- April (if not sooner). Why do I say this? I chart the market using technical analysis. There are some clear patterns developing in the DJIA. One is a long-term ascending wedge, which is a bullish pattern. This wedge started back in '04 and has gone through 3 tops and 3 bottoms. Today it made what I am guessing will be its last top. Secondly on a smaller timeline, since November the market has been making a expanding top (also know as a megaphone top). This is another bullish pattern. Again today, the pattern was completed when the last needed top was made. Lastly, over the last six days the DJIA has been making a smaller ascending wedge. It's running out of room on this wedge and tomorrow should see some action to lower prices. The reason I say that the Dow will reach 10500 is that that is the number at the low end of the really large ascending wedge (because we're at the end of that one, the price will probably go through 10500). Also 10500 is the bottom of the 6-month wedge (again it's the end of the wedge so it'll probably go lower). Even if you don't pay attention to the market and don't care what the Dow does because all of your mamby pamby stocks are mid cap defense b.s. (BTW, civil war in Iraq and growing domestic dissent will nullify those stocks) -- a drop of 700+ points in the DJIA in a month will be felt.

Of course, the patterns could fall apart and if they do I'll let you know but it is interesting that three time frames (5 year, 6 months and 10 day) are all showing classic bullish patterns.

I've always thought that it would spell economic disaster if the world suddenly stopped using dollars as its means of transacting business and now it looks like hints of this may be occuring. Here's the story. Because so many Americans innundated their congressman's inbox with pleas to deny Dubai Ports World thier ports contract, the arab world is now vowing to move thier central bank reserves out of US Dollars and into Euros. Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Syria have made plans to swap out the dollars and countries such as Saudi Arabia are pretty miffed at the US's actions as well and might follow suit. This is bad. We in the US are suffocating in debt and the only thing keeping us afloat are the investments that other countries give us in the form of buying our bonds and using our dollars (Japan and China own the lion's share of our debt, by the way). If this counter-move by certain arab countries gathers steam and more and more countries dump the dollar, our currency will tank and interest rates will most likely skyrocket as the Fed tries to make the dollar more attractive and of course really high interest rates will skewer the economy. Will this be the event that really does us in? I don't know but I do know that we cannot afford to be protectionist. If we were solvent, maybe but we're far from that.

I'm also keeping my eyes on what Iran plans to do with petrodollars. OPEC countries have used the US dollar as the de facto currency. One of Iran's stated threats to us is that they will start using Euros instead of dollars for oil transactions. This, in my opinion, is a much greater threat than any nukes they may develop. Because dollars are used for the most important commodity in the world it lends legitimacy to our currency. Take that away and people might begin to believe that "the full faith and credit of the US" isn't worth much anymore.

There is an interesting development in the bid flu community. Many of the amateur slueths and scientists proclaim that the virus has mutated rapidly in the last month aquiring 5 out of 6 of the amino acids necessary for human to human transmission. However they claim that they are unable to study the virus completly because the World Health Organization has hidden the results of many virus samples taken from around the world inside of a password protected database. This begs the question: why would the WHO do this? Other health organizations like the OIE do not do this, they make thier sequencing information public as soon their testing is complete on public websites such as GenBank. Are they hiding something? Do they hope to make money somehow? Are they afraid of widespread panic? Are they lazy and ineffective? I suspect the latter is the answer.

Italy's Directory of Vetinary Institute calls on WHO to disclose data

Recombinomics call for immediate release of WHO data.

This closeup of the avian flu virus looks like mines, huh?

I've had a growing paranoia about cops lately. Seems that everwhere I turned I'd see a police cruiser. Yesterday I drove across town and saw at least 20 in various locations throughout San Francisco, cruisers speeding by, cops leading black men away in handcuffs and cops questioning folks asleep on sidewalks. Did our mayor increase funding for the police? Did the men in blue all of a sudden decide to crackdown on the city? I mentioned this to my wife and see said the rumour-mill at the kiddie park is that the city has undergone an influx of refugees from New Orleans and that they have taken to attacking scared white people in broad daylight. One lady on the swank side of Fillmore Street was pepperspayed by a couple of neer-do-wells and robbed. Interesting. If true it hasn't made it into the press yet and city officials are probably trying not to declare it due to the impact it might have on the all important tourism dollars.

I'm predicting that the stock market will drop precipitously this month.

Fun Facts:

Here is the list of countries that have reported cases of bird flu infection since 2003:

-- Austria
-- Azerbaijan
-- Bosnia and Herzegovina
-- Bulgaria
-- Cambodia (human cases confirmed)
-- China (human cases confirmed)
-- Croatia
-- Cyprus
-- Egypt
-- France
-- Germany
-- Greece
-- Hungary
-- India
-- Indonesia (human cases confirmed)
-- Iran
-- Iraq (human cases confirmed)
-- Italy
-- Japan
-- Kazakhstan
-- Kuwait
-- Laos
-- Malaysia
-- Mongolia
-- Niger
-- Nigeria
-- Poland
-- Pakistan
-- Romania
-- Russia
-- Serbia and Montenegro
-- Slovakia
-- Slovenia
-- South Korea
-- Sweden
-- Switzerland
-- Thailand (human cases confirmed)
-- Turkey (human cases confirmed)
-- Ukraine
-- Vietnam (human cases confirmed)

On 28th February there were 35 countries on this list. That is an increase of 5 in just one week.

The number of fatalities reported each month from bird flu has risen since October 2005, reaching 11 in February, the highest monthly total since February 2004, when the virus is reported to have killed 14 people in Thailand and Vietnam. At least 94 of the 174 people known to be infected with the bird flu since late 2003 have died (54%).

When the Feds admit it, it's already here:

The lethal avian flu that is spreading rapidly around the world could soon infect wild birds and domesticated flocks in the United States, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Wednesday.

In testimony to a congressional panel on his agency's budget for combating a possible avian flu outbreak among humans, Leavitt told senators that no one knows when or if the virus will pose a threat to people. But, he said, "it's just a matter of time -- it may be very soon" when wild birds and possibly poultry flocks contract the disease.