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A new Gallup survey is rather disquieting for those of us in the media. It finds that not even a quarter of Americans perceive either television or newspaper reporters to have "very high" or "high" standards of ethics and honesty. There are various explanations for that perception in the eyes of the public. But the belief here is that one major contributing factor is the public's perception that some of what they read on the front pages of the major dailies or watch on the evening news is politically slanted. Indeed, the public need look no further than coverage of...

BILOXI - U.S. Sen. Trent Lott doesn't believe Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign immediately, but he does think Rumsfeld should be replaced sometime in the next year. "I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld," Lott, R-Mississippi, told the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning. "I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers." Rumsfeld has been criticized since a soldier asked him last week why the combat vehicles used in the war in Iraq don't have the proper armor. Both Rumsfeld and President Bush have said more vehicle armor will be shipped to Iraq. Lott said the...

Wheeled vehicle ballistic armor protection (sec. 112) The committee recommends a provision that would add $610.0 million in Other Procurement, Army (OPA), for the procurement of up-armored high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWV) in sufficient quantities to acquire such vehicles up to a rate of 450 vehicles per month and for the procurement of add-on ballisticarmor protection for medium and heavy wheeled vehicles. The $610.0 million would be in addition to the $315.0 million increase in OPA for up-armored HMMWVs (UAH) the committee recommended elsewhere in this report. The provision will provide the Secretary of the Army with the flexibility...

On December 16, 1944, General Bradley came to my headquarters to discuss ways and means of overcoming our acute shortages in infantry replacements. Just as he entered my office, a staff officer came in to report slight penetrations of our lines in the front of General Middleton's VIII Corps and the right of General Gerow's V Corps in the Ardennes region. . . . - Dwight Eisenhower, "Crusade in Europe" It had started with the dawn: an unexpectedly heavy artillery barrage. How had the retreating Germans managed to mass so many guns? Was this just a local attack, or a...

Colonel Olson knows first hand how important properly equipped vehicles can be when it comes to a soldier's survival. Olson said, "The doors work. They work real well."The doors Olson mentioned are armored doors that are installed on Humvees and other vehicles used by troops. At the Watervliet Arsenal, armor kits for those doors are assembled and shipped overseas. Olson said, "We need to do everything we can for this. We are here. We're working around the clock to make sure we can produce to our max-capacity for the doors." As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator...

AT WAR Question Authority What the media got wrong about Spc. Wilson and Secretary Rumsfeld. BY JOHN R. GUARDIANO Wednesday, December 15, 2004 12:01 a.m. To the media, it was a dramatic revelation of Bush administration hypocrisy and incompetence: A lowly American GI courageously speaks truth to power, thus showing that the emperor has no clothes. But to this Marine veteran of the Iraq war, the hullabaloo over Army Spc. Thomas J. Wilson's question reveals far more about media bias, prejudice and ignorance than it does about the U.S. military and Iraq. Spc. Wilson asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld why,...

Reporters didn't much like Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's answer last week to Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, when he explained that the military's Humvee force wasn't fully armored because "you go to war with the Army you have." Perhaps Rumsfeld's far more candid assessment of U.S. military preparedness - offered more than a year before the invasion of Iraq - would have been more appropriate. In January 2002, he told "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert that the military had deteriorated so badly during the Clinton administration that it might take a decade to rebuild. "It takes time to run...

Young students in journalism school ought to be taught that "by their stories, you shall know them." The media reveal their opinions about the world not only in their endless pontificating verbiage, but in the topics they choose. The "news" becomes whatever floats their boat, whatever they urgently want the people to know.  It's no surprise that one thing the Left wants the people to believe is that the people who took the country to war in Iraq are not only foolishly hawkish, but tactically incompetent. Just because the people heard this ad nauseam and re-elected Team Bush anyway doesn't...

S.2401 Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 SEC. 112. UP-ARMORED HIGH MOBILITY MULTI-PURPOSE WHEELED VEHICLES OR WHEELED VEHICLE BALLISTIC ADD-ON ARMOR PROTECTION. (a) AMOUNT- Of the amount authorized to be appropriated for the Army for fiscal year 2005 for other procurement under section 101(5), $610,000,000 shall be available for both of the purposes described in subsection (b) and may be used for either or both of such purposes. (b) PURPOSES- The purposes referred to in subsection (a) are as follows: (1) The procurement of up-armored high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles at a rate up to 450 such...

The Pentagon yesterday blamed miscommunication for the Army's not capitalizing on a firm's ability to produce more armored Humvee utility vehicles for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The issue goes back to last Wednesday in Kuwait, when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld heard an Army National Guardsman complain about a lack of armored vehicles. After the well-publicized complaint, Armor Holdings Inc., the sole-source provider of Humvee armor, announced that it could produce an additional 100 armored Humvees monthly, if only the Army had asked. The soldier's question and Armor Holdings' statement helped fuel a rash of negative press reports about...

NEWS WIRE SERVICES Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf said yesterday he was "angry" at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's response to a soldier who complained he and his fellow grunts in Iraq lack sufficient armor plating. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam War hero, reiterated that he has "no confidence" in the Pentagon boss. After a soldier told Rumsfeld that he and his fellow servicemen must scrounge for metal to better fortify their Humvees, the secretary told him, "You go to war with the Army you have." That response didn't sit well with the former general. "They deserve every bit of protection...

THE SHOCK of the US election result has worn off just enough for Britain’s bien pensants to start bleating about George Bush again.The reappointment of Donald Rumsfeld, in particular, has been very hard for Islington, even though — where it matters — the US Defence Secretary’s record is exemplary. Remember how it was when he took office. The Clinton presidency had responded feebly over several years to the carefully graduated attacks on US targets by al-Qaeda. As a result, America’s deterrent posture was sorely weakened. Osama bin Laden and his jihadists concluded that America had lost its nerve; 9/11 was...

McCain attacks Rumsfeld on Iraq The outspoken Republican Senator John McCain has said he has "no confidence" in Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over his handling of the war in Iraq. Mr McCain said there were "strong differences of opinion" between the two men, particularly over troop numbers. But he refused to call for Mr Rumsfeld to resign, saying who was in the team was up to President George Bush. Mr Rumsfeld faced a public grilling from his own troops when he visited a US base in Kuwait last week. The BBC's correspondent at the Pentagon, Nick Childs, says those...

Thursday, Lieutenant General R. Steven Whitcomb,Commander, Third Army "Patton's Own," and Coalition Forces Land Component Command, answered some questions, regarding the armoring of vehicles in Iraq, including humvess. These are some of the facts the three star General shared with the press: "Congress has provided in the neighborhood of about $1.2 billion since last year strictly to armor our vehicles" "Up-armored humvees... is a vehicle that is produced in a factory back in the United States and it essentially gives you protection, both glass and on the armament on the side, front, rear, sides, top and bottom. If you'll think...

INFORMATION WARFARE: Mom, Apple Pie and Truck Armor December 10, 2004: The American Secretary of Defense was holding one of his frequent “town hall” meetings with troops this week. A soldier in the audience, at the urging of an imbedded reporter, asked why there wasn’t more armor and bulletproof glass for trucks. Rumsfeld said, in effect, that the stuff is being produced as fast as possible. The subject of unarmored trucks in Iraq is an old one, as is the massive effort the army has made to armor its vehicles and protect the troops from ambush and roadside bombs. But...

SEC. RUMSFELD: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. My goodness. What a group this is. Impressive gathering. General Steve Whitcomb, thank you so much for your kind words. Sergeant Major Kellman, it’s good to see you again. I appreciate your able leadership as well. First, I want to say thank you to each of you, to your families for your superb service to our country. You are doing noble work, it’s vitally important work and your country is deeply grateful. Today’s December 8th. Sixty three years ago today our nation declared war on an enemy that had launched...

See the following articles: http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_10.html http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/203200_armor10.html http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m998.htm From those articles and webpages, here's some facts: 19,400 Humvees in Iraq 5,900 were shipped from factory with armor 9,000 upgraded with kits in theater TODAY 77% of Humvees in Iraq are armored Unarmored Humvees aren't supposeed to go off base. Unarmored Humvees travel between bases on a flatbed truck. Of 9,386 armor kits shipped to Iraq, 9,143 have been installed. That's 97% installed, only 3% to go. There are at least 16 varients of the Humvee: M998 cargo/troop carrier without winch M1038 cargo/troop carrier with winch M966 TOW missile carrier, basic armor,...

LODI -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apparently doesn't know they turn the lights off each night at Lodi's R.E. Services. Rumsfeld recently told disgruntled National Guard troops in Kuwait the reason there isn't more armor on military vehicles in Iraq is because it can't be made fast enough. "There's no capacity is what Rumsfeld said," said Mark Frater, chief executive officer at R.E. Services, which began making lightweight armor for military vehicles earlier this year. "I'm just running one shift. I've got capacity. I could run around the clock if they gave me the orders." Frater's company makes laminated plates...

Shortly after the U.S. deposed Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003, the Army kicked off its annual "war game," a mock battle in which U.S. forces set out to topple another Middle Eastern regime. Set 10 years in the future, the game featured a force built around a light, fast, armored vehicle that the Army planned to start producing in 2010. The Army attacked from seven dizzying directions and, when the game ended, appeared on the verge of shattering the enemy force. "We walked out and patted ourselves on the back and said 'marvelous job,' " says retired Lt. Gen....

An Army contractor says it has agreed to step up production of the Iraq-bound Humvees by 100 a month starting early next year. WASHINGTON — The Army moved Friday to boost production of armored Humvees for American troops in Iraq by 100 a month, despite recent assertions by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that soldiers could not be supplied with safer vehicles because Pentagon officials could not procure them any faster. The steps to increase production came two days after Rumsfeld bluntly told troops being sent to combat that assembly lines installing armor on the vehicles were already operating at...