“NICE PEOPLE DON’T GO TO HELL”

New York Times – Note this excerpt:

What had happened to the reservists echoed the conditions their own soldiers experienced in Iraq: a shortage of armored vehicles, especially for part-time soldiers’ units; convoy missions through dangerous stretches without adequate firepower; and constant breakdowns among old vehicles owned, especially, by National Guard and reservist units.

Now, over at the Washington Post:

The top U.S. commander in Iraq complained to the Pentagon last winter that his supply situation was so poor that it threatened Army troops’ ability to fight, according to an official document that has surfaced only now….
He also said units were waiting an average of 40 days for critical spare parts, which he noted was almost three times the Army’s average. In some Army supply depots in Iraq, 40 percent of critical parts were at “zero balance,” meaning they were absent from depot shelves, he said.

Back in Boston, Marine Return from Iraq to Emotional Ruin, Suicide:

Now, nearly four months after his suicide, the Luceys are trying to make sense of how Jeff became unraveled after serving in Iraq.

Shaun Lamory, one of Jeff’s friends since high school, figures it this way: “He was always the happiest kid in the world — he was too nice. And he was put into hell. And nice people don’t go to hell.”

But the Luceys don’t spend too much time wondering what may have happened to their son in the desert, where he told his family he was ordered to shoot two unarmed Iraqi prisoners at close range.