No warm fuzzies for Rummy and Bush
A week after President Bush announced that Donald Rumsfeld would keep his post as Secretary of Defense and trumpted the DoD's feel-good "America Supports You" troop campaign, the troops responded with a resounding, "Prove it!"
Today, Bush was left scrambling to save face for himself and his Secretary of Defense after Rumsfeld faced respectful but blistering criticism over poor planning and substandard equipment during a Q&A session with troops. One soldier asked, "Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles, and why don't we have those resources readily available to us?" to rousing applause from the assembled troops. Rumsfeld asked him to repeat the question, claiming he hadn't heard the first part.
Rumsfeld's answer included "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." Well, that's reassuring. Evidently preparedness has nothing to do with war planning. At one point, Rumsfeld stared silent and blank-faced for so long the troops started to snicker.. Rumsfeld took the tone of a dotty grandfather and told the troops to "settle down" before begging their patience with a feeble "I'm an old man and it's early in the morning." Feeling safer, America?
Today, Rumsfeld cleared things up: "I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing. I think it's a very constructive exchange."
Bush joined in the excuse-making today. "The concerns expressed are being addressed, and that is, we expect our troops to have the best possible equipment. And if I were a soldier overseas, wanting to defend my country, I'd want to ask the secretary of defense the same question." Yeah, well, maybe you should ask him the question as the Commander in Chief. Thanks for your personal commitment, Mr. President. I know it's hard work being President.
For the eye-rollers out there, more and more progressive commentators are beginning to connect the dots between the Bush star chamber and the rise of the Nazis. Check out Maureen Farrell's column on BuzzFlash.com.
Photo ©Reuters
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