The U.S. Army has banned privately-purchased body armor for soldiers, ostensibly to “protect” them. According to the government:

“We’re very concerned that people are spending their hard-earned money on something that doesn’t provide the level of protection that the Army requires people to wear. So they’re, frankly, wasting their money on substandard stuff,” said Col. Thomas Spoehr, director of materiel for the Army.

Now, I would prefer U.S. troops be out of Iraq completely, but this latest directive tells me that the Mad Neocons who direct U.S. foreign policy are further trying to con us with the “everything is just peachy in Iraq” lies. You see, the troops don’t need to spend their own money for body protection because the U.S. Government already cares for them.