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the last time we went to iraq they surrenedered in masses. i don't think anybody expected this kind of fight from these guys. but now we have to deal with it. and we will win.

Rant, rant and rant some more, foggy. I've told you before that I'm a disciple of Pat Buchanan not Sean and Rush!

Reporter's role in armor query is questioned
By HOWARD KURTZ and THOMAS E. RICKS
Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A reporter traveling with a National Guard unit prodded one of its soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the lack of armor for some U.S. military vehicles in Iraq, an exchange that made worldwide news Wednesday when the assembled troops cheered the question.

Edward Lee Pitts of the Chattanooga Times Free Press told colleagues in an e-mail that he and members of the Tennessee Army National Guard now in Kuwait "worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor" and that Spc. Thomas Wilson posed the question at his request.
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President Bush and Rumsfeld both said Thursday that they welcomed the pointed questions that soldiers posed and that the concerns they raised were being addressed. The Pentagon held a briefing to make a similar point, but congressional Democrats continued to criticize Rumsfeld for his responses to the troops in Kuwait.

Two media analysts said Pitts should have disclosed his role in the story he wrote. But Tom Griscom, the paper's publisher and executive editor, said Thursday that "the soldier asked the question" and could have rejected Pitts' idea.

"Because someone's in the media who's embedded with them, does that mean they don't have the same opportunity to at least make a suggestion of something that might be asked?" said Griscom, a White House communications director in the Reagan administration. "Is that what makes it wrong, because a journalist did it? ... That response from the troops was a clear indication that this is an issue on their minds."

In the exchange in Kuwait, Wilson asked, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal" to armor vehicles "and why don't we have those resources readily available to us?"

Rumsfeld replied that "you go to war with the Army you have ... not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

Pitts, who last week wrote a story about what he terms "hillbilly armor," boasted about his role, according to the e-mail, which was leaked to the online Drudge Report. "I have been trying to get this story out for weeks," Pitts wrote.

Griscom said that today's edition of his paper will carry an explanation of Pitts' role.

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said Pitts "may have emboldened soldiers to ask questions that citizens are often a little more timid about asking," and may have helped frame the question "in a more provocative way," but there was "no sleight of hand" involved.

Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein media center, said Pitts' role "makes me uncomfortable," but that "I don't consider this to be a setup because it was a legitimate question as far as the soldier was concerned."

Bush said he thought the questions to Rumsfeld were legitimate. "We expect our troops to have the best possible equipment," he said. "And if I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country, I'd want to ask the secretary of defense the same question."

Rumsfeld, who traveled from Kuwait to India, said there that it is "good for people to raise questions." He said he found his session in Kuwait "a very fine, warm, enjoyable meeting."

The Pentagon held a briefing to say the soldiers' concerns were being addressed, emphasized that the military is putting armor on Humvees as fast as possible, and that it is military policy not to have soldiers drive into Iraq in vehicles lacking armor.

The problem the Guard soldier pointed out has more to do with other vehicles that the Army operates, such as cargo trucks, to which armor is being added in less formal ways. Of the 30,000 wheeled military vehicles the military has in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region, about 8,000 lack armor, Army Lt. Gen. Steven Whitcomb said.

Congressional Democrats kept up their fire. "I think the secretary's comments (in Kuwait) were more dismissive than thoughtful and reasonable," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is preparing the largest supplemental budget request ever — close to $100 billion — to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and for gear to replace equipment worn out in the fighting. That request would come on top of other, smaller supplemental appropriation bills.

[quote="southpaw";p="76244"]Meanwhile, the Pentagon is preparing the largest supplemental budget request ever — close to $100 billion — to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and for gear to replace equipment worn out in the fighting. That request would come on top of other, smaller supplemental appropriation bills.[/quote]

How long will it take Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton and cohorts to vote against it?

Congress's Paperwork Humvees (Finally, Some Honesty in the Media about Armor for Humvees)
The Wall Street Journal ^ | December 10, 2004 | Wall Street Journal Editors

Posted on 12/10/2004 9:29:15 AM PST by MikeA

When an Army reservist in Kuwait gave Donald Rumsfeld an earful Wednesday about inadequate armor for Iraq-bound Humvees, the Defense Secretary responded by paying the soldier the compliment of candor. "You go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have," he said. That's at least an honest answer, and the Secretary's forthrightness seems to have been appreciated by the troops at the town hall meeting, who gave him a standing ovation.

Figuring it was politically safe to slipstream behind a soldier's question, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd called Mr. Rumsfeld's comments "cavalier." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for Mr. Rumsfeld to be fired--for only the 10th or 15th time. California Representative Ellen Tauscher vows to press for hearings on supply needs.

The latter might even do some good, or at least hearings might if they examine the military's (which is to say Congress's) failed acquisition system. Specifically, we hope the Pentagon's 200,000 acquisition officers are paying attention. For if Mr. Rumsfeld gets the Army he wants, a good number of them will find themselves turning into MPs, civilian affairs officers, or other specialties the military desperately needs more of. When the Defense Secretary talks about military transformation, and the need for a faster, more agile force, that includes a faster, more agile procurement system.

By Pentagon standards, the Army has done an adequate job of getting the armor it needs. When commanders first identified the need for more armored vehicles, in August 2003, production was at 30 per month; it's now up to 450 a month. Plants making armor are running at full capacity.

Today, anyone who's tried to sell so much as a paper clip to the Pentagon will tell you what a time-consuming mess the system is.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...