Rumsfeld Gets Bitchslapped By Our Troops
From the AP:
Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld.
The defense secretary hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.
"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson concluded after asking again.
Wilson, whose unit, the 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard, is about to drive north into Iraq (news - web sites) for a one-year tour of duty, put his finger on a problem that has bedeviled the Pentagon (news - web sites) for more than a year. Rarely, though, is it put so bluntly in a public forum.
Rumsfeld said the Army was sparing no expense or effort to acquire as many Humvees and other vehicles with extra armor as it can. What's more, he said, armor is not the savior some think it is.
"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up," he said.
Read the full article here.
Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld.
The defense secretary hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.
"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson concluded after asking again.
Wilson, whose unit, the 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard, is about to drive north into Iraq (news - web sites) for a one-year tour of duty, put his finger on a problem that has bedeviled the Pentagon (news - web sites) for more than a year. Rarely, though, is it put so bluntly in a public forum.
Rumsfeld said the Army was sparing no expense or effort to acquire as many Humvees and other vehicles with extra armor as it can. What's more, he said, armor is not the savior some think it is.
"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up," he said.
Read the full article here.
