Even if it's true, I find it disingenuous that Bush and Rumsfeld take the hit for any supply or logistics problems, but there's no mention of Klinton spending 8 years slashing military budgets, running members off, and diverting as much military money as possible toward non-military things (like having submarines out studying arctic ice floes and whale migrations).
"Digging through trash bins for ballistic glass and armor, that sounds like total embellishment to me."
It's more than that...it's total BS!
I spent a year in Iraq when the I.E.D.'s were just becoming a problem and with every homegrown modification we came up with...NOT ONE of them involved digging through trashbins. When ballistic glass was damaged...it was replaced IMMEDIATELY. Up armored Hummers were rolled out to the units ASAP and the incoming Brigade that replaced us...signed for our up-armored Hummers when we left.
What we are dealing with is laszy and deceitful reporting on the part of Mr. Pitts and a willing stooge with an agenda in the form of the Soldier who asked the question.
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT Pentagon Says It's Working to Arm Vehicles
The shortage of armored humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan is nothing less than a scandal. Nearly two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a quarter of all humvees in Iraq are still without armor. Joining me now are Congressman Gene Taylor, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and our military analyst, General David Grange. Gentlemen, good to have you here.
GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you.
REP. GENE TAYLOR (D-MS), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Great to be there, sir.
DOBBS: Congressman Taylor, let me turn first to you on this. The fact that this young soldier had the courage to stand up and, frankly, we should give the Pentagon credit, that the military had the guts to put the senior defense leader in a town hall meeting in front of the troops to their credit. The answer, however, was not what any of us would have liked to have heard, was it?
TAYLOR: No. In fact, I wish the answer had been for Secretary Rumsfeld to turn to whatever general was accompanying him and say, fix this. That should have been the correct answer. It should have been the correct answer a year ago, when I raised the question, when Congressman Rob Simmons of Connecticut raised the question, when the chairman of our committee, Duncan Hunter, raised the question, and it still hasn't been fixed. We've told them repeatedly, send us the bill, fix the problem.
DOBBS: General Grange, you are amongst those who here, over the course of the past year, have said straightforwardly, give our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan the best. Is there any possible reason for the senior leader of the United States military to say, we take what stands, and it will go on in perpetuity, rather than deal with a crisis like this?
GRANGE: The equipment should have been resourced to the military. Lou, this is a problem, actually decades ago -- we had this problem for Somalia. We had the same problem going into Kosovo, trying to get armed kits, scrounging throughout the system to provide those for the logistic units to move in. And especially in a counterinsurgency operation where there are no front lines, all vehicles are subject to attack. So this has been an age-old problem and a failure of leadership in the military and administration throughout decades.
DOBBS: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is squarely in focus on this for that rather unfortunate aphorism that "we go to war with the army we have," not necessarily, parenthetically, the one that we want.
But the fact is, the generals in the Pentagon, the generals in Iraq and Afghanistan, to listen to that three-star today basically say that we're working the problem, does that reflect a spirit in the U.S. military's command that has established itself? I keep waiting to hear, "Can do. Let's get up and get them."
GRANGE: Lou, the generals in the military -- and it was the same when I served -- we were responsible to make things happen. When you put on those stars, you're the guy in the arena. You have to find it. And it's tough to do that. But it's your responsibility to resource the troops. Yes, it falls on the general officers.
DOBBS: Congressman Taylor, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, and some of our best representatives serve on that committee from both parties, Duncan Hunter, a terrific leader of that committee...
TAYLOR: I agree.
DOBBS: ... how in the world, can you guys in your oversight role -- I understand your complaint, but in your oversight role, for us to have men and women in harm's way without the best, and accept the idea from a production line manager that they can't do something in the course of 20 months when young men, in particular in uniform, are losing arms and legs and being killed?
TAYLOR: Lou, No. 1, I want to thank you for your broadcast last night. You were right on target. Just today, the people who make the armored kits said that they can increase production by 22 percent overnight, and they're waiting for the Pentagon to ask them to do it. That's without any additional expenditure.
This is inexcusable. And quite frankly, I think some of the people who have failed to get this done ought to be riding around in Iraq right now in unarmored humvees, and maybe they'd get the message. Maybe they'd realize the importance. A year ago right now, I met with some Mississippi National Guardsmen who had actually gone to a scrap heap and who had welded a couple of boxes around their humvees in order to protect themselves. I came home immediately and said, "this is unacceptable." Nothing's been done about this for over a year now. This is ridiculous.
DOBBS: General Grange, give us a sense, your sense of the attitude of the generals in the Pentagon. I am sure they are all the best in meaning of people who have served with distinction, their country in uniform, but the idea that there is a mind-set that would accept this level of inadequacy and protection, forced protection, is, I think, to most Americans, utterly astounding.
GRANGE: It is amazing. And the issue is, it has to really be driven by the top, because one general in this particular shop or in the field in a certain country cannot do it all himself or herself. It has to be driven at the top. It has to be in synchronization with not only the administration, the Pentagon, but Congress.
You know, the problem is, Lou, that all these years, the focus was on big-ticket items, big-weapons systems, not the foot soldier, not the boots, the flak vests, someone's truck being armored to some extent. The 30 years I served, that was not the priority.
So really, a lot of people bear this responsibility, to include Congress, but then it boils down to who answers the trooper? The general in charge of the unit. And that's a tough thing to be put on you, but you've got to figure out how to make it happen.
DOBBS: Congressman Taylor, you've got a number of Mississippians about to ship out.
TAYLOR: Almost 5, 000.
DOBBS: Five thousand to Iraq. What are your thoughts tonight? We're going to give you the last word.
TAYLOR: Lou, I'm just telling you, I don't want to go to a single funeral and have to look a mom or dad or a spouse in the eye, and knowing that this Congress has gone to Secretary Rumsfeld for over a year now, saying, "fix the problem. Send us the bill," and they have failed to do it. This is inexcusable, and it does start with the secretary.
Every general, every admiral, every private, they work for the secretary of defense. If he would have said, "fix the problem," it would have been fixed by now. It's time for him to do that, or it's time for him to let someone else do that.
DOBBS: And I think it's appropriate, proportional and fair to point out that Secretary Rumsfeld works for the commander in chief, for whom it is the ultimate responsibility.
Gentlemen, we thank you for being here to share your views, and we appreciate it, Congressman Gene Taylor, General David Grange, as always. TAYLOR: Thank you, sir.
GRANGE: Thank you.
Actually, he asked, "Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromise ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles and why don’t we have those resources readily available to us?"
He's still embellishing, I agree. It creates the imagery of teams of soldiers scrambling frantically around, a la Junkyard Wars, (great program) scavanging for all those bits of 3" bits of 1/2 inch plate and ballistic glass those KWAZY Kuwaitis are always using and discarding during their daily Doom enactments.