The Troops Speak Up and Lash Out at Rumsfeld

All Americans, liberal or conservative, support our troops in the field and only hope they come back alive. It looks like the troops themselves are questioning the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, why the troops are not properly equipped. Rumsfeld's response was "You go to war with the Army you have, not the one you might want." Well, Mr. Rumsfeld, you are responsible for the Army we have. Maybe we should get rid of you so we can have the Army we want and our troops deserve.

Rumsfeld faces tough questions from troops (Full Story)

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (AP) -- After delivering a pep talk designed to energize troops preparing to head for Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got a little "talking to" himself from disgruntled soldiers.

In his prepared remarks, Rumsfeld urged the troops -- mostly National Guard and Reserve soldiers -- to discount critics of the war in Iraq and to help "win the test of wills" with the insurgents.

Some of soldiers, however, had criticisms of their own -- not of the war itself but of how it is being fought.

Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, for example, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team that is comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session why vehicle armor is still in short supply, nearly three years after the war in Iraq.

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

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

Rumsfeld replied that, "You go to war with the Army you have," not the one you might want, and that any rate the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it as fast as humanly possible.

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said.

Some pep talk he gave... "don't worry about it guys you are going to get killed with or with out armor, so quit whining." How does this man still have his job?