Thursday, December 09, 2004
The end of Rumsfeld
The Defense Secretary flew to Camp Buehring, Kuwait, yesterday to rally our Iraq-bound boys in a town hall discussion event.
But soldiers like Specialist Thomas Wilson, a scout with a Tennessee National Guard unit, had a few questions for the Sec.:
Once he’d gathered his thoughts, Rumsfeld offered:
And:
There is no truer hero-warrior in all America.
posted by Dawkins : 12/09/2004 01:37:00 PM
But soldiers like Specialist Thomas Wilson, a scout with a Tennessee National Guard unit, had a few questions for the Sec.:
[Wilson] was the first to step forward, saying that soldiers had had to scrounge through landfills here for pieces of rusty scrap metal and bulletproof glass -- what they called "hillbilly armor" -- to bolt to their trucks.
"Why don't we have those resources readily available to us?" Specialist Wilson asked Mr. Rumsfeld, drawing cheers and applause from many of the 2,300 soldiers assembled in a cavernous hangar here to meet the secretary.
A few minutes later, a soldier from the Idaho National Guard's 116th Armored Cavalry Brigade asked Mr. Rumsfeld what he and the Army were doing "to address shortages and antiquated equipment" that will affect National Guard soldiers heading to Iraq.
Mr. Rumsfeld seemed taken aback by the question and a murmur began spreading through the ranks before he silenced it.
"Now, settle down, settle down," he said. "Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here."
Once he’d gathered his thoughts, Rumsfeld offered:
"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up," he said. "And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."
And:
"You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
There is no truer hero-warrior in all America.
posted by Dawkins : 12/09/2004 01:37:00 PM
