Posted on 03/29/2002 10:27:59 AM PST by Pancho13
Rumsfeld Blasts Top Brass General, admiral had complained publicly
By RICHARD SISK Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ripped two four-star officers yesterday for saying U.S. service members were tired and running out of a key weapon in the war on terror.
Rumsfeld also announced the death of a Navy SEAL, who stepped on a land mine near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
In a rare public rebuke for the top brass, Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, used a televised Pentagon briefing to criticize Army Gen. William Kernan and Adm. Robert Natter, commander of the Atlantic Fleet.
Rumsfeld said Kernan, chief of the Joint Forces Command, was out of line for telling a House panel two weeks ago that the troops were tired because "we are busier than we have ever been."
Rumsfeld said the 1.4 million men and women on active duty don't "begin to fit that characterization."
Natter came under fire for saying the Navy had run short of joint direct attack munitions, or J-DAMs, and had to borrow some of the satellite-guided bombs from the Air Force.
"We damn near ran out in Afghanistan," Natter said three weeks ago.
"The inventory is not depleted," said Myers, who then got into trouble himself. "Even my wife understood this one."
That drew oohs from the media crowd.
"You're in trouble everywhere now," Rumsfeld said in mock horror. "When you say, 'even my wife' — even I know better than to say that."
Myers sheepishly sought to recover by saying, "Mary Jo, turn off the TV."
Uncertainty Persists
After giving an overview of the war, which they said showed steady progress, Rumsfeld and Myers bristled at questions about the troops' readiness.
But concern is widespread at the Pentagon that U.S. forces may be overextended by worldwide commitments.
Top Pentagon officials also have acknowledged that they are pressing manufacturers to churn out more J-DAMs.
Retired Rear Adm. Eugene Carroll said the rebuke of two top officers was highly unusual.
"Reprimands are usually done in private for going off the reservation," he said.
In other developments:
Chief Petty Officer Matthew Bourgeois, 35, a Navy SEAL from Tallahassee, Fla., was killed when he stepped on a land mine during a training exercise near Kandahar. Another serviceman, who was not identified, was wounded in the blast but was expected to recover. Pakistani police arrested more than 30 Islamic militants, including some alleged members of Al Qaeda, in raids in the cities of Lahore and Faisalbad in Punjab province. One suspect was killed and four wounded in shootouts during the raids, the Interior Ministry said.
Original Publication Date: 3/29/02
As for the public/private issue, I sincerely wish Rummy had done this in private. Now the media will be ever more interested in covering this issue.
And if congress asks the question, you tell them the truth in a closed session.
Even if clintoon is to blame (and he is at least partially), how is it a help to tell our enemies just what shorcommings we face ?
Offer to answer in closed session because the information concerned our ability to hurt the people listening in for just the kind of information they heard.
Open and televised inquiries are for PR in any event - Congress does not typically expect to hear details about readiness when CSPAN is announcing each round to the world.
You are looking at, and participating in at our low and removed level, an internal left/right battle within the government.
You are looking at it because some of the participants are willing to announce their bias in public and because the media is starving for something to hang on GWB.
You are (probably) taking part in it because many at FR think that a Republican president is honor bound to agree with every one of their (Freepers) pet theories.
That, or you're still waiting for Buchanan.
Agreed. I am actually confused by why Atlantic Command was testifying to the war in Afghanistan, its CentCom's war not Atlantic's. He does not seem to be the appropraite voice for this and certainly was not cleared to discuss this through SecDef. As to the army general, what a whiner. They just barely got in the fight a few weeks ago in force (special forces excepted).
The only legitimacy I can think of to his claim is the strain on reserve forces that this along with recalls from the Klintoon days is causing. In certain functions, like security and psyops for example, the army has moved almost all their capability to the reserves. Most reservist, though not all, have civilian careers to balance, and employers who understand the need to deploy maybe once every 10 years or so. Constant recalls every three years or so for one year or longer orders has reservists opting out when they get off active duty, and discourages new reserve entries.
Q: General Myers, could I go back to this issue of "exhausted" and "extended" that Brett made -- asked? Isn't it true, though, that the U.S. is almost exhausted and overextended in the use of precision weapons over there? I mean, you've dropped like 5,000 of these satellite-guided bombs and the inventory is depleted. In that respect, isn't the --Myers: That's not correct, Tony. The inventory is not depleted.
[snip]
Myers: No, the issue is, are we going to stand up here and tell you how many JDAMs we have? No, we are not. But I just told you we are not exhausted -- what term did you use? -- depleted. We're not depleted.
And during Allied Force, there was a big listing of our munitions, some of our precision munitions, and it was Mary Jo who turned to me, my wife, and said, "Why are we telling the world what our -- the status of our munitions? Shouldn't that be classified information?" And it should have been, and for some reason we felt obligated to spit it out there. In this case, we are not depleted; let me just say that. It goes --
Rumsfeld: It also happens that the admiral, who was discussing this subject, was wrong. He -- maybe not wrong; he may have been speaking of something he knew something about but should not -- been speaking about, because the levels of munitions is not everybody in the world's business, to be perfectly honest, and he should have known better. But he may have been talking about what he did know about, in a narrower area, but not a worldwide area. And --
Q: The comments that the -- I think it was from Admiral Blair and General Ralston, as you said, talked about the fact that they were asked specifically, that they do not feel they have the forces and capabilities to conduct the missions that they have now, and that what that means is that, as General Ralston said, "I do not have the forces in EUCOM to carry out these missions."
But if asked to do something else, he would come back to you --
Rumsfeld: Exactly.
Q: -- and say, "I need more."
Rumsfeld: And they do all the time.
Q: And what that means is, then, there will have to be a decision made and a trade-off.
Myers: Right. We prioritize all the time. That's what we do. And --
Rumsfeld: Every day we're faced with those issues, and he's quite right. No one person is necessarily going to have every single thing they need at any given moment, unless they ask for it and then a judgment's made as to how you want to balance those risks and how -- what priorities you think are appropriate. And that's what General Myers and I do.
There is some back and forth on this issue at other places in the press conference. But it is important to note that the media brought up the names of the "top brass" and Rumsfeld and Myers answered their questions.
The entire transcript can be read here ..... and I recommend that all do so before jumping to too many conclusions.
Oh please. It's clearly wrong for 'these top officers' to state these things in a public forum. They could have made the exact same statement in a closed-door session with Congress and/or voiced their concerns to the Secretary of Defense, first. For military 'leaders', no judgement was employed here.
I believe Secretary Rumsfeld was making an example of these two men to get the point across that you don't blab negative military information (the soldiers are tired, we're low on ammo) over television. That's plain foolish and makes one wonder how these guys got to be an Admiral and a General, respectively. Trying to turn it into a supposed coverup of an 'honest examination' of the conduct of the war is a hollow, baseless charge. If you truly believe that, you'll believe anything as long as it makes the Bush administration appear in a bad light.
Good, keep thinking that and remember that it is Congress who declares war, not the Sec. Of Defense and not the President. Congress has not declared war since 1941.
---max
Navy Seal Chief Petty Officer Matthew Bourgeois (left), of Tallahassee, Florida, was killed in an explosion during a training exercise near Qandahar, Afghanistan Thursday morning, according to the Department of Defense. His wife Michelle and baby son Matt, 7 months, are also shown in this undated family portrait. REUTERS/Handout
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