S.O.S.
"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."
- Donald Rumsfeld, Dec. 8, to U.S. troops in Kuwait
Those comforting words from Rummy came after several National Guardsmen complained to the Secretary of Defense that some troops have resorted to combing through junkyards for "rusted scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass" to use as armor on military vehicles.
It must have been a stunning scene, soldiers airing grievances to the Defense Secretary during a question-and-answer session in a Kuwaiti hangar. The tough queries prompted applause and cheers from the crowd (If interested, a transcript of the meeting has been released by the Department of Defense).
Are two wars stretching U.S. troops to the breaking point? Did misculculations about post-Iraq War operations result in the apparent equipment shortages and rising death toll?
At this point, the reasons don't much matter. We are stuck in this quagmire, and we owe it to our troops to give them every resource they need to stay alive.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has retained about 7,000 active-duty Army soldiers through the "stop-loss" policy that extends contracts past their slated dates of enlistment. Another 40,000 reservists are likely to be ensnared by "stop-loss." And the Los Angeles Times reports that the Army is wrestling with a serious shortage of surgeons who are "overwhelmed" by the deluge of casualties.
Stay tuned.
posted by Chase McInerney @ 8:55 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
However you feel about the war, I think it's open and honest for the DOD to release the transcript -- and for Rumsfeld to put himself into the situation in the first place. He had to know such questions were coming. But he stood up and took them -- just like Blair stands up in Parliament every week.
Maybe it would be a good thing for every president to submit himself to a raucous weekly Q&A session before Congress in a similar fashion.
Reddirt I think the ratings for C-Span would go through the roof if there was a Q & A in Congress.
Capitol Hill Smackdown...
It was actually a reporter who planted the questions with the soldiers. I think the whole embedded thing is ridiculous anyway and flies in the face of journalistic integrity and purity.
Well, a Tennessee reporter planted two of the questions, but how does that warrant an "anyway"? The reporter didn't plant the round of applause, nor did he force the soldiers to raise the questions with the Defense Secretary, an act that in and of itself is undeniably dramatic. Besides, unless the answers were planted, too, what does it matter?
With the handling of the war and from what we have learned from the 9/11 commission, it's amazing to me that our country functions at all. My disillusionment is backed up by my own limited involvement with the US Government. I think we and the rest of the planet have been operating under a Hollywood delusion that we actually know what we are doing and are state of the art at doing it. Maybe (and it isn't a sure bet) we do have the best functioning government in the world, but that is a scary prospect for humanity.
Post a Comment
<< Home