I Guess Used Armor is Better Than No Armor

A month after the infamous Rumsfeld encounter with the troops in Iraq, where the Defense Secretary was questioned about the lack of armor for troop vehicles, it appears the State of New Jersey will be donating their "used" body armor to the Military: Used Body Armor Is Sought for U.S. Vehicles in Iraq

Several questions come to mind on this news:

1) What do they mean by "used" body armor? Does Kevlar have a freshness date? Does it go "bad"? Or do they mean that the armor has been shot at and penetrated? Mitchell Sklar, executive director of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police maintains that even as the vests reach the end of their useful life for people(my emphasis), they can still help reinforce vehicles. He said, "There are hundreds and hundreds of vests that we have no use for and, rather than dumping them, we feel that we are doing our bit."

What the heck does that mean?

2) If the vests are donated, does that mean New Jersey gets a tax write-off?

3) If the New Jersey police no longer want them, why would our soldiers want them?

4) Is there more to this story than we're being told?

5) And finally, of the hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars we've committed to spending in Iraq, are we ABSOLUTELY SURE we can't add armor to the budget? Who's minding the store?

More later...
Paul