WTF? Why Don't Our Troops Have Food?

I keep waiting for one of these nightmare stories from the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan to be proven false. They never are. The knee-buckling incompetence that infests the White House has grown to such gross proportions that one would wonder how a person can continue to be outraged. Well when the "greatest military force in the world" needs FOOD donations, my outrage meter gets recalibrated to deal with the newest ineptitude spewing from the DOD.

Thanks to PoliShifter from Pissed On Politics for finding this.

U.S. Marines go hungry
By BOB KERR
The Providence Journal
02-MAY-06

The Iraq war has been the war fought on the cheap _ not enough body armor, not enough armor on vehicles, not enough night vision equipment.

It has been the war in which packages from back home have had to fill some crucial needs.

Now, we have chow call at the Greenwood Credit Union in Warwick, R.I. It's the latest in home-front intervention. It's partially in response to the unthinkable image of U.S. Marines approaching Iraqi citizens and asking for food because they do not have enough.

There's a big barrel in the lobby of the credit union on Post Road in Warwick. It's decorated with ribbons and it's there because Karen Boucher-Andoscia's son, Nick Andoscia, called and asked his mother to send food.

Nick's a Marine corporal. He was in Afghanistan last year, where there was enough to eat. He's in Iraq now even though his enlistment was up last year.

He's one of those Marines who can't walk away. His unit, the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marines, was headed for Iraq and he just couldn't head for civilian life while those he had served with were heading to their second war.

"He extended," says Karen. "He told me, 'I really have to go. I can't let my guys go alone.' "

There are a lot of stories like that. We don't hear them much. They're kind of personal.

So Nick Andoscia went to Iraq. And hunger soon followed.

"I got a letter," says Karen. "And he had called me before that. He said, 'Send lots of tuna.' ".....