Lost in a Masquerade

Not by the president, of course, but by troops fighting in Iraq. Some of them are finally fed up enough to rumble about his back-door draft and failure to provide them with the proper armor for their Humvees, leaving them scrambling to improvise with what they call "hillbilly armor."

The defense secretary had been expected to go to Iraq on this trip but spent the day greeting troops in Kuwait instead. Even though Pentagon officials insist that security wasn't an issue, I bet they had to be worried not to travel the extra 40 miles to Iraq.

Rummy met with troops at Camp Buehring, named for Chad Buehring, an Army colonel who died last year when insurgents in Baghdad launched a rocket-propelled grenade into Al Rasheed, a Green Zone hotel once frequented by Western journalists and administration officials that is still closed to guests because - despite all the president's sunny bromides about resolutely prevailing - security in Iraq is relentlessly deteriorating.

As Joe Biden told Aaron Brown of CNN about his visit to Falluja, "They got the biggest hornets' nest, but the hornets have gone up and set up nests other places." He said that a general had run up to him as he was getting into his helicopter to confide, "Senator, anybody who tells you we don't need forces here is a G.D. liar."

Rummy, however, did not hesitate to give the back of his hand to soldiers about to go risk their lives someplace he didn't trouble to go.

He treated Thomas Wilson - the gutsy guardsman from Tennessee who asked why soldiers had "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?" - as if he were a pesky Pentagon reporter. The defense chief used the same coldly cantankerous tone and squint he displays in press briefings, an attitude that long ago wore thin. He did everything but slap the kid in the hospital bed.

In one of his glib "Nothing's perfect," "Freedom's untidy" and "Stuff happens" maxims, Rummy told the soldier: "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have."

It wouldn't make a good Army slogan, and it was a lousy answer, especially when our kids are getting blown up every day in a war ginned up on administration lies. Remember when the president promised in the campaign that the troops would have all the body armor they needed?

These young men and women went to Iraq believing the pap they were told: they'd have a brief battle, chocolate, flowers, gratitude. Instead, they were thrust into a prolonged and savage insurgent war without the troop levels or armor they needed because the Pentagon's neocons had made plans based on their spin - that turning Iraq into a democracy would be a cakewalk. And because Rummy wanted to make his mark by experimenting with a lean, slimmed-down force. And because Rummy kept nattering on about a few "dead-enders," never acknowledging the true force, or true nationalist fervor, of the opposition.

The dreams of Rummy and the neocons were bound to collide. But it's immoral to trap our troops in a guerrilla war without essential, lifesaving support and matériel just so a bunch of officials who have never been in a war can test their theories.

How did this dangerous chucklehead keep his job? He must have argued that because of the president's re-election campaign, the military was constrained from doing what it is trained to do, to flatten Falluja and other insurgent strongholds. He must have told W. he deserved a chance to try again after the election.

He had a willing audience. W. likes officials who feed him swaggering fictions instead of uncomfortable facts.

The president loves dressing up to play soldier. To rally Camp Pendleton marines facing extended deployments in Iraq, he got gussied up in an Ike D-Day-style jacket, with epaulets and a big presidential seal on one lapel and his name and "Commander in Chief" on the other.

When he really had a chance to put on a uniform and go someplace where the enemy was invisible and there was no exit strategy and our government was not leveling with us about how bad it was, W. wasn't so high on the idea. But now that it's just a masquerade - giving a morale boost to troops heading off someplace where the enemy's invisible and there's no exit strategy and the government's not leveling with us about how bad it is - hey, man, it's cool.

What really happened at Camp Buehring yesterday:

December 08, 2004

Donald Rumsfeld

Today was one of the days throughout this deployment that I will remember the rest of my life. It was an opportunity to meet one of the key architects in the War on Terror, and a man whom I personally admire. Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stood before about 2,300 soldiers today on what was a fairly cool and overcast morning, and spoke to us about our place in history, the difficult job we have before us, and the thankfulness that the American people hold in their hearts for everyone deployed in the Global War on Terror.

We found out last week that the Secretary of Defense would be coming to one of the area’s camps, and that we might have the opportunity to attend the address he would make. Fortunately, my contingent took volunteers and five of us boarded a bus and headed to the location where we would have the opportunity to listen to and even meet Mr. Rumsfeld. It was indeed a great speech, and like Victorino Matus in the Wall Street Journal Opinion pages today, drew parallels to what occurred on December 8, 1941 as America entered WWII. The Secretary spoke about how the Germans and the Japanese underestimated the resolve of America’s finest, but that the men and women in uniform performed magnificently. Mr. Matus too, made the same parallels stating:

“It all has a familiar ring to it. The enemy believes that it takes only a taste of real war, followed by a few casualties, to send Americans running home with their tails between their legs. The American president, weighed down by public opinion, will then be forced to make concessions and abandon the field.
Sixty years ago, Adolf Hitler had exactly such thoughts. He launched a devastating offensive in Western Europe in the hope that he could weaken America's willingness to fight and thus splinter the Allies, leaving him free to deal with the Soviet Union...
The Nazis at first perceived the American soldier to be "a gum-chewing spoiled brat." Instead they faced an adversary willing to stand his ground. The 394th's I&R platoon played a pivotal role in slowing the German advance--a delay that would prove costly. "We knew it weren't no little thing," said Sgt. George Redmond. "But I figured if I'd gotten that far, I'd get the rest of the way. You only have to go when your time comes." America's enemies would do well not to underestimate this sense of courage and duty.”

Mr. Rumsfeld gave a very good speech to “Rally the Troops” and it was heartening to sit there in that aircraft hangar, only feet away from the man who holds the power of America’s armed forces in his hand. After his formal speech, he opened the floor to questions. I was impressed once again with our nation, when a 20 year old Specialist has the opportunity to stand before the Secretary of Defense and ask him a direct and difficult question. Mr. Rumsfeld did receive such questions today, and handled them fairly well. Certainly, in areas such as stop loss, the answer was not one that some soldiers wanted to hear, but honestly, even that was slightly comforting. His answers were usually direct and blunt, telling the audience the realities of a situation rather than an overly sugar-coated prepared sound-byte. I will admit, I am partial to the Secretary and believe he puts America’s and the military’s best interests first, but even from the most un-biased position I could conjure up, I was impressed at both his speech and the fact that he visited today.

You can find the AP Newswire link here, as carried in the Fresno Bee. There is also this article that appeared in the Middle East Online. Although the AP article captured the sentiments a little more accurately, I must say that the mood in the hangar was much more of goodwill, with soldiers packing around the Secretary as if he was a movie star to shake his hand or get a picture at the end. There was a great deal of frustration in the voice of the soldier who asked questions regarding vehicles being up-armored, and the hangar did erupt in applause after he spoke, but I wouldn’t translate one very tough question into a grill session by American forces. The questions were direct, and dealt with everything from exit strategies to one Chaplain asking Mr. Rumsfeld to take his soldier to Disneyland on the Secretaries private plane to boost morale. For the most part, the mood was not one of anger and disgust, just concern over serious issues that impact all of our lives. For me, the Q&A represented the intelligence and professionalism that is the US Armed Forces.

You can find some pictures from today below, and sure be to weigh in on the discussion in the comments section.

Posted on December 08, 2004 at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Pictures With Sec. Rumsfeld

These pictures were taken of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today by Specialist Ryan Albaugh. He is also responsible for the picture of Mr. Rumsfeld and I below. He's got a lot of other really great shots and I am trying to get him to set up his own photo-blog with all the pictures he's taken while we've been deployed.

Posted on December 08, 2004 at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

(You can click on each photo for a Super Size Rummy.)

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