You've Got to be Kidding Me...

On the one hand, as reported on NPR this week, life threatening battlefield casualties have never been better handled logistically, to get badly wounded troops medivaced to trauma health care centers. On the other hand, it takes two U.S. senators to get our 'support-the-troops' administration off of it's bureaucratic tails:

Two senators have sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking why U.S. troops in Iraq are operating without inexpensive tourniquets that can potentially save lives.

The letter from Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., obtained by ABC News, refers to a report in Sunday's edition of The Baltimore Sun that there has been a delay in getting new first-aid kits containing tourniquets to the troops.

"A number of our bravest military personnel have reportedly bled to death on the battlefield, and the experts have determined that putting a tourniquet in the hands of every soldier is a vital life-saving measure," the letter states. "Holding up the fielding of a life-saving medical kit simply to optimize its carrying pouch suggests a mindset oblivious to the wartime needs of our soldiers."

---Courtesy of Buzzflash