by James Glaser
December 9, 2004

Our troops know you keep your mouth shut when ever there is a General around and you really tow the line when someone from Washington comes to "pump up" the troops. It is unprecedented that an American soldier would complain on camera to the Secretary of Defense.

The Associated Press reports, "Disgruntled U.S. soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about the lack of armor for their vehicles and long deployments, drawing a blunt retort from the Pentagon Chief."

Having to answer questions, life and death questions with the troops is not what Rumsfeld expected to do. These troops from the 278th Regimental Combat team are in Kuwait and will be heading to Iraq next week for a years deployment and the troops want to know why they have to use vehicles that don't have the armor plating needed to protect them.

I have no idea of how many billions of dollars we have spent in Iraq, or do I know how much of that money was wasted or taken fraudulently by Defense contractors selling us gas at inflated prices or meals for troops that never ate them. Somehow, some way, our troops should have the equipment they need when we put them in harms way. We have been in Iraq for over a year and a half and we have had this armor problem from the start, along with a lot of other equipment problems, but Washington puts things like this on the back burner. Congress voted the money needed for this war, and it should be spent to protect our troops.

You have to know if it was Rumsfeld's Kids' vehicle over there, they would have that armor.

General Gary Speer claims the troops have what they need, but here is what the soldier asking the question said, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up armor our vehicles?" I would believe a soldier asking that question before I would a General who is going to get in trouble if his troops are not prepared for battle.

The soldier has no reason to lie and it took a lot of guts to ask that question with his Commanding Officer standing right there. On the other hand, that General who claimed all the vehicles had the armor needed, had every reason in the world to lie, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt because there is a good chance General Speer has never laid his eyes on those vehicles and he was only going by what his officers told him as they were trying to cover their butts.

Washington and Secretary Rumsfeld would like us to forget this whole affair and they will repeatedly tell us they are doing the best they can and that most troops have everything they need. Of course that isn't true and this isn't the first time the troops have spoken up. Remember our troops are getting killed every day, their friends are losing limbs, and they know their chances of coming home in one piece are greatly enhanced if they have armored vehicles.

In a report by CBS News dated October 31, 2004, it is written, "Two weeks ago, a group of Army reservists in Iraq refused a direct order to go on a dangerous operation to resupply another unit with jet fuel." It went on, "Without helicopter gun ships to escort them over a treacherous stretch of highway, and lacking armored vehicles, soldiers of the 343 Quartermaster Company called it a suicide mission."

Those soldiers from the 343rd refused to go on that mission and the Army arrested every one of them, but when word got out that there was an organized unit mutiny, the Army had to back down and release them, because the lack of equipment looked bad.

The Pentagon and the Army do not like it when you and I find out that our sons and daughters are dying because they failed to give them the equipment they have already said they had.

Yes it is true that some communities have had bake sales and raffles to raise money to buy their loved ones the equipment that Washington refuses to supply our troops with. Sure the White House and the Pentagon keep telling us that our troops have the equipment they need and George Bush stated they did over and over in his campaign, but it wasn't true then and it still isn't true now.

In his pep talk to the troops in Kuwait, Rumsfeld told the troops that they should make the best of the conditions they face and said the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce at as fast as humanly possible. Well if Rumsfeld has to give that answer to the troops, that means at least he knows the troops do not have the armor they need and it would be nice if he would tell the President that.

Rumsfeld went on with this totally stupid statement to the troops, "You can have all the armor in the world and it can (still) be blown up." The troops know that they can never be perfectly safe, but they also know that about half of all combat deaths and wounds have come from roadside bombs that tear an unarmored Humvee or truck apart.

Many combat troops have come home with pictures of their vehicles that lack the proper steel plating to protect them from enemy mines and rocket propelled grenades. CBS News reports that the troops "jerry-rig trucks with plywood and sandbags." "They call them Cardboard coffins"

Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee wrote, "The Army has made great strides in improving the capabilities of all the units deploying to Iraq as the nature of the conflict has changed." He noted the President approved spending $840 million to improve the armor on Humvees in Iraq.

That should have been done long before any troops set foot in Iraq, we elected to go to war and it is obvious that we really were not ready for combat. A few more months and those vehicles would have been brought up to specs. And maybe thousands of young American soldiers would not have lost their lives or limbs.

We have a well trained military and our troops are as brave as any American fighting force we have ever deployed, but we have not equipped them with the equipment they need to protect themselves and that is a crime.

Can you even imagine driving a fuel convoy through Iraq with no armed escort and trucks with no armor? Who ever is in charge over there and over here, should be relieved of their command. This is America and we are the richest nation on the planet. There is no excuse for what we are doing to our troops.

"Support the Troops" should not be just a slogan!