Are they joking? (If so, it's a bad one!)

My latest WTF moment...the workers at the plant are getting only crackers for breakfast and one meal a day, have to sleep on lead sheets on the floor and can only shower once a day..and don't even ask if they have the proper suits or not...and some don't even have radiation monitors, we now learn!  So I'm remembering back to all the coverage from before the Iraq invasion that showed how well prepared the US military is to fight in a contaminated environment (i.e. NBC - Nuclear, Biological, Chemical).  The suits were way beyond what the workers seem to be wearing, showering off the contaminants was an integral part of the program, and they also had special tents that provided a secure environment...not to mention plenty of highly nutritional MREs.  So you mean to tell me that the Japanese SDF doesn't have that sort of stuff?  If so, why didn't TEPCO already have the same sort of thing on hand...or at the very least gotten a bunch of it from the SDF on day one?  If not...what exactly is it that Japan has been paying for with the 5th largest military budget in the world?  And even if that were the case, wouldn't one phone call from PM Kan to Pres. Obama have been all it would have taken to get the needed equipment from the US?   Are they trying to fail?  At this point, you really have to wonder!