Politics Can Get You Killed...

...If you're in the 5/2 Strykers.

Greyhawk has the details. Short version: You take a group of soldiers superbly-prepared for urban warfare in Iraq, decide at the last minute that for "optics" they should be deployed to Afghanistan while another brigade's deployment is quietly stepped up to fill the gap created in Iraq units... and soldiers in that formerly-superbly-prepared group are killed at alarming rates.

No, you didn't misread that. It's simply a collection of verifiable, undeniable facts.

I keep thinking of Lady MacBeth... but I sadly I doubt the people responsible for this are suffering the pangs she did.

These days the phrase "God help us" often echoes earnestly in my mind on topics of national importance. In this case: God help those soldiers. One of them is my "adopted" soldier, and six weeks ago he was moved to assist the company of the 5/2 that has suffered the highest KIA rate of them all...