Strategypage reminds me of what is probably a good reason for this line of attack--the press discovered that troops buy equipment and then assumed that this must be some new development caused by the failure of this administration to actually equip the troops. But this is silly:
Last year, the media discovered that troops spend their own money on military equipment. Actually, the troops have been doing that forever, but once the news reached Congress, a law was passed requiring the government to reimburse troops for gear they bought. All this got lots of publicity. Oddly enough, few of the troops bothered to apply for the payments. So far, about 70 troops have applied, and about $30,000 has been paid out. Most of the requests came from the navy (34), but total payments were only some $5,000. The army had about 30 requests, mostly for body armor purchases, which totaled about $22,000. The marines had four requests, and the air force had none.
The press heard about this for the first time and assumed it was new. On the bright side, with talk of what soldiers were buying getting out, the military has speeded up procurement of items similiar to what that soldiers were buying so they can be issued instead.
Still, you'd think all those people who used to sport "What if the Pentagon had to hold bake sales to buy weapons?" bumper stickers would be overjoyed instead of using the incorrect fact as a club to hit the administration.
