Salon: Why it took soldiers to put Rumsfeld on the defense

The Pentagon press corps has been missing in action, so Army grunts stepped in to do its job.

By Eric Boehlert

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's rude reality check on Wednesday -- broadcast worldwide during a town-hall-style Q&A session with surprisingly blunt Army reservists in Kuwait -- generated headlines in part because it's so rare for Army grunts to challenge the Pentagon leadership in public. But the critical give-and-take also made waves and jolted the secretary because Rumsfeld is simply not accustomed to facing this type of tough questioning, certainly not from the deferential press corps that covers him and the Pentagon on a daily basis. Instead, many reporters in the clubby world of the capital continue to hold Rumsfeld in unusually high regard, considering he's the point man for the deeply troubling U.S. strategy in Iraq.

On Wednesday, though, soldiers and reporters switched roles. Suddenly it was the troops, usually called upon during public forums to loft softball questions to high-ranking administration officials, who were raising uncomfortable lines of inquiry. After suffering through nearly two years of unforeseen and chaotic violence in Iraq, seeing nearly 1,300 of their fellow soldiers killed, and watching their tours of duty being extended again and again by the Pentagon, rank-and-file members of the U.S. military took it upon themselves to turn up the heat on the war planners and seek some semblance of accountability. That used to be the job of journalists.

(snip)

But Rumsfeld's headmaster-style pushback, so effective in dealing with timid reporters inside Pentagon briefing rooms, did not stem the flow of tough questions, as troops peppered him about the Pentagon's "stop loss" program, which forces volunteer troops to serve longer than expected. "Settle down, settle down," Rumsfeld said at one point, trying to regain control. "I'm an old man and it's early in the morning. I'm gathering my thoughts here."

The revelation Thursday that an industrious Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter embedded with Wilson's unit reportedly talked with the soldier beforehand about posing his pointed question to Rumsfeld simply highlights how complacent the Beltway press has been on the urgent issue of armor shortage. Why haven't reporters worked up the nerve to ask these questions themselves before now? Meanwhile, the reporter's handiwork regarding the armor query doesn't explain away the other tough questions Rumsfeld had to fend off from the troops on Wednesday.

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http://salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/12/10/kuwait/index.html

they'll screen more carefully. Maybe just put some young republicans in uniforms and have them ask questions like "Can we please extend our tour" and "Can I have your autograph"

Right before that was broadcast on CBS, our local CBS affiliate in Tampa Bay was broadcasting about all the good things we're doing in Iraq. Working in schools, orphanages, and hospitals.

Nothing about dropping cluster bombs and napalm on all of the above.

"Settle down, settle down," Rumsfeld said at one point, trying to regain control. "I'm an old man and it's early in the morning. I'm gathering my thoughts here."

All he's doing is standing up there answering questions which he ought to know the answer to off the top of his head, given his position. The only "thoughts" he was gathering was how to put a spin on it so it wouldn't sound too much like the truth.

I can't believe he would tell soldiers that are getting shot at every day to settle down and ease up on him because it's early and he's old. What kind of leadership is that? Our troops don't get to tell the Iraqis not to shoot yet, it's too early, they need to gather their thoughts. Nor do their victims get to say, wait guys, it's only 8am, it's too early to react to gunfire, I'm not awake yet.

Rumsfeld needs to be fired; he's a disgrace.

Once the takeover was complete and the military aggression started, the only institution that had the political potential to counter the reality of the increasing totalitarian illusions was the Army. It failed.

and not because it was a swipe at the Clinton administration's military cuts. The troops were asking about armor, not about their own qualifications. Rumsfeld should at least have said, "you go to war with the equipment you have ..." He was implying the army was sub-par, not the armor.

There are so many levels on which his comment was assinine, but this aspect hasn't been mentioned.

Also, the question about the stop loss has been glossed over as well. Two things

1. Why aren't more republicans joinging the army? If a half a million of them joined it would solve the problem would it not? Predicted answer "it's too dangerous".

2. My Dad was in Vietnam and LITERALLY has nightmares about them saying he has to come back and serve again "I'm 60 years old what can I do??". Now these kids are going through the same shit but it's REAL!!