At a town hall meeting with American troops in Kuwait last week, Don
Rumsfeld committed a cardinal sin for any Bush administration
official - he gave people permission to ask him anything.
"Now the General said you can ask tough questions," Don told the
assembled troops, "and you can." Big mistake. After fielding two
softballs, Don got a fastball in the face from Spc. Thomas Wilson.
"My question is more logistical," said Wilson. "We've had troops in
Iraq for coming up on three years and we've always staged here out
of Kuwait. Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local
landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromise ballistic glass
to up-armor our vehicles and why don't we have those resources
readily available to us?"
"I missed the first part of your question, responded Rumsfeld,
shakily. "And could you repeat it for me?"
Sure he could! "Yes, Mr. Secretary. Our soldiers have been fighting
in Iraq for coming up on three years. A lot of us are getting ready
to move north relatively soon. Our vehicles are not armored. We're
digging pieces of rusted scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass
that's already been shot up, dropped, busted, picking the best out
of this scrap to put on our vehicles to take into combat. We do not
have proper armament vehicles to carry with us north."
The troops are having to dig through landfills so they can make
armor out of rusted scrap metal? That's outrageous! And that's the
response Don Rumsfeld should have given, except, realizing the
trouble he was now in, he decided to do what he's best at, which is
dodge all responsibility.
"I'm told that they are being the Army is I think it's something
like 400 a month are being done," replied Rumsfeld. "And it's
essentially a matter of physics. It isn't a matter of money. It
isn't a matter on the part of the Army of desire. It's a matter of
production and capability of doing it."
Oh really? Funny that. See, after Don's comments, the only company
which supplies the Army with armor for Humvees in Iraq said that
they wouldn't have a problem boosting production by up to 22%
without further investment. It's just that the Pentagon hasn't asked
them to.
But that wasn't Don's only duck-and-weave. He went on:
"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the
Army you might want or wish to have at a later time ... And if you
think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank
and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored humvee
and it can be blown up."
So, to translate, "Yeah, I've been defense secretary for four years
and had more money thrown at me to improve the military than any
defense secretary in recent memory, but this is all Bill Clinton's
fault. And you guys suck, I wish we had a better Army. And at the
end of the day, it doesn't matter whether you've got any damn armor
or not, you're still screwed."
Way to support the troops, Don.