By the Seat of their Pants

StrategyPage has this on a humorous and rather simple problem in Afghanistan: combat trousers are having a tough time handling the strain of maneuver over rough terrain. The army is moving quickly to deal with the problem, but this incident should serve of yet another reminder of how far we've come since Rumsfeld's vision of "transformation". Before we can create amazing networks of information-consuming soldiers, we have to account for the basic necessities of combat. No matter what, there will be times when our troops are forced to improvise by the seat of their pants - and it'd be nice to know that their pants are up to the task.