Text 6363, 82 rader
Skriven 2004-12-17 21:39:00 av ED HULETT (1:275/311)
     Kommentar till en text av ALAN HESS
Ärende: Rumsfeld vs. the troo
=============================
-=> ALAN HESS wrote to ALL <=-


 AH> l=bal-pe-opinion
 AH> 
 AH> Rumsfeld's response leaves questions unanswered
 AH> 
 AH> By Clarence Page
 AH> 
 AH> December 16, 2004
 AH> 
 AH> WASHINGTON - If you don't like the message, knock the messenger, as an old
spin
 AH> doctor's motto goes. That's how some people are reacting to a soldier's
question
 AH> that knocked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld off his game during
 AH> a town hall session in Kuwait last week.
 AH> 
 AH> Spc. Thomas Wilson, a scout with a Tennessee National Guard unit, asked
Mr.
 AH> Rumsfeld why soldiers still have to fortify their canvas-covered Humvees
with
 AH> "hillbilly armor," scrap metal and ballistic-resistant glass that they dig
out
 AH> of landfills for protection. After a brief moment of stony silence, the
comment
 AH> brought a spontaneous eruption of "hooahs" and applause from other troops.

I found this, you might find it interesting. 

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/008949.php

It says that of 830 vehicles requiring armoring up, only 20 hadn't been at the
time
the plant asked the question.

<quote>

"The first point is that you'll recollect that one of the questions was the
status of the 278 ACR; in other words, the date that we had the visit by the
secretary of Defense, we had a question about their up-armoring status. When
the question was asked, 20 vehicles remained to be up-armored at that point. We
completed those 20 vehicles in the next day. And so over 800 vehicles from the
278 ACR were up-armored, and they are a part now of their total force that is
operating up in Iraq. 
Q On the 278th, can you repeat this? At the time the question was asked, the
planted question, the unit had 784 of its 804 vehicles armored?

GEN. SPEAKES: Here is the overall solution that you see. And what we've had to
do is -- the theater had to take care of 830 total vehicles. So this shows you
the calculus that was used. Up north in Iraq, they drew 119 up-armored humvees
from what we call stay-behind equipment. That is equipment from a force that
was already up there. We went ahead and applied 38 add-on armor kits to piece
of equipment they deployed over on a ship. They also had down in Kuwait 214
stay- behind equipment pieces that were add-on armor kits. And then over here
they had 459 pieces of equipment that were given level-three protection. And so
when you put all this together, that comes up with 830.

Q At the time of the question -- summarize this, now -- that unit that the kid
was complaining about was mostly armored?

GEN. SPEAKES: Yes. In other words, we completed all the armoring within 24
hours of the time the question was asked.

Q If he hadn't asked that question, would the up-armoring have been
accomplished within 24 hours?

GEN. SPEAKES: Yes. This was already an existing program."

<end quote>

IOW, this entire teepot tempest is just left-media hype in an attempt to bash
Rumsfeldt and the Bush administration.

You can read the entire news conference here:

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041215-1801.html
 
Ed

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