WRONG UNIES

Slate’s Explainer tackles the question: Why Are U.S. Troops Wearing Dark-Green Camouflage? While the piece explains this–poor planning and bureaucratic small mindedness–it really doesn’t answer an even more basic question: Now that the Cold War is over and war in Europe seems the least likely scenario, why isn’t the desert camouflage pattern the standard uniform instead of woodland cammo? Given that soldiers already have the latter, and that those uniforms are in ready supply after 20 years of use, it would be a lot easier to switch troops over to green unies if a war broke out in a forest somewhere than to scrounge up desert cammies in the far more likely event that the war will be in the Middle East or Sub-Saharan Africa.

FILED UNDER: Africa, Iraq War, Middle East,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.