“Increasingly not ready” may not be exactly what we want to get.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Military -- Marines badly in need of funding, report says:

“You are going to see the Marine Corps increasingly not ready for duty unless it gets funded,” said Max A. Bergmann, an author of the 25-page report titled “Marine Corps Equipment After Iraq.”

In addition to running short of recruits (but not to worry, the Corps called up a 60-year old vet the other day and if the geezers can't fix this nobody can), the armed forces are running seriously short of equipment as the rigors of desert warfare take their toll.

If you've ever spent any quality time on a military base you have a general idea what sand can do. The military seems always to put bases on the sandiest soil available (probably because it was the cheapest land they could get at the time) and before a day in the field goes by the stuff is in your skivvies, in your rifle, and in your food. In the food doesn't matter much - in fact it sort of goes with Army chow - but in your rifle is a very big deal. In fact, huge.

Consider the even sandier conditions in Iraq, and the stuff blowing through chopper engines and grinding up tank treads and the like, and it's a wonder anything still works. If, that is, it does.

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