if i were in charge

i'd do everything within my power to protect our men and women serving in the armed forces. i'd NOT sign a contract with ANYONE unless they were an honorable corporation or individual. i say every person in king george's court (including the king his own self) should be made to send their sons and daughters (if they have sons and daughters) to the middle east, equipped with what our armed forces are equipped with. when our senators and congresspeople take a quick trip to the middle east to see what up, THEY should only be equipped with what our armed forces are currently equipped with AND NOTHING MORE. no special armaments. we'll see how quickly things change.

Army shuns system to combat RPGs
Experts agree it might help save lives, so why isn’t it in the field?

By Adam Ciralsky, Lisa Myers & the NBC News Investigative Unit
Updated: 10:16 p.m. ET Sept 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - Rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, are a favorite weapon of insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are cheap, easy to use and deadly.
RPGs have killed nearly 40 Americans in Afghanistan and more than 130 in Iraq, including 21-year-old Pvt. Dennis Miller.
“They were in Ramadi, and his tank was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade,” says Miller’s mother, Kathy. “Little Denny never knew what hit him.”
Sixteen months ago, commanders in Iraq began asking the Pentagon for a new system to counter RPGs and other anti-tank weapons.
Last year, a special Pentagon unit thought it found a solution in Israel — a high-tech system that shoots RPGs out of the sky. But in a five-month exclusive investigation, NBC News has learned from Pentagon sources that that help for U.S. troops is now in serious jeopardy.
The system is called “Trophy,” and it is designed to fit on top of tanks and other armored vehicles like the Stryker now in use in Iraq.
Trophy works by scanning all directions and automatically detecting when an RPG is launched. The system then fires an interceptor — traveling hundreds of miles a minute — that destroys the RPG safely away from the vehicle.
The Israeli military, which recently lost a number of tanks and troops to RPGs, is rushing to deploy the system........

and this as well

Did the Army favor Raytheon in anti-RPG bid?
NBC News investigation finds contractor enjoyed competitive advantage

By Adam Ciralsky, Lisa Myers & the NBC News Investigative Unit
NBC News
Updated: 9:16 p.m. ET Sept 6, 2006

WASHINGTON - Earlier this year, the U.S. Army awarded one of its favored defense contractors, Raytheon, a $70 million contract to develop a new system to combat rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), which have killed nearly 40 Americans in Afghanistan and more than 130 in Iraq.
The Army insists that Raytheon won the contract fair and square based on its “systems engineering expertise and the discipline which they used in analyzing requirements, threats and potential solutions.”
But an NBC News investigation of the contract selection process reveals that at almost every turn, Raytheon was given a significant competitive advantage over other defense contractors, including an Israeli firm whose system was extensively tested and found to be highly effective.
When contacted by NBC News about this matter, Raytheon said it was not authorized to speak about how its contract was awarded and instead referred all questions to the Army.
Raytheon’s contract is a small but important part of the Army’s massive modernization program called the Future Combat System (FCS), which has been under fire in Congress on account of ballooning costs and what the U.S. Government Accountability Office [link to PDF report] found are worrisome procurement practices that allow weapons manufacturers to effectively tell the Army which weapons to buy................