AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Rummy's Response - Let them wear cake

Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, a 31-year-old member of a Tennessee National Guard unit, asked Rumsfeld why vehicle armor is still scarce, nearly two years after the start of the war.

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Wilson asked.

The question prompted shouts of approval and applause from the estimated 2,300 soldiers assembled in a hangar in Kuwait to hear Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson, an airplane mechanic, to repeat his question.

"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson said.

Rumsfeld said the Army was prodding manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it quickly, but noted, "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have."



Newsday.com - AP National News

Here's my take on this:

In the fall of 1942, the United States invaded North Africa 10 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and approximately two years after legislation authorizing a vast arms build-up. The vast majority of the planes, ships and tanks involved were brand new. Simultaneously, we were engaged heavily in Guadalcanal and supplying Britain and the USSR via lend-lease. If we got the armor to the soldiers 62 years ago, we can get the armor to them now.

The honest answer to the soldier is that the chickenhawks don't think it's important. Rumsfeld, you don't have to be an arrogant smartass to the people who are actually doing the fighting.