Links to video of Rummy telling troops to F-off re; Armored vehicles ?

[elehhhhna]

Saw it this a.m. ATROCIOUS.

[searchingforlight]

1. Know nothing about it. Where did you see it? n/t

[whistle]

2. Dick Cheney seems to have a lot of influence over the Bush

...Administration appointees. In the coming weeks and months expect to hear the following:

- Condi Rice calling a foreign diplomate a Mother-F**ker
- Scott McClellen telling Helen Thomas, "You suck girl"
- George Dubya Bush telling his general staff, "I'm gonna rip some new as*h*les!"

With so many new appointments, what do other DUers think will come out the mouths of Bush new boys and babes?

[MrBenchley]

3. BBC radio news just had the soundbite

of the soldier asking why he had to pick through trash dumps in Kuwait to find scrap metal so he could armor his vehicle and the room erupting in cheers....but the newsreader summarized Rumsfeld's response as "this is the army you're in" or something like it...

We must find a link and circulate the story!!!

[Ian David]

4. We need to print the story on postcards and mail it to red states

[TravP]

5. AP Story

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (AP) - Disgrunted U.S. soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumself on Wednesday about the lack of armor for their vehicles and long deployments, drawing a blunt retort from the Pentagon chief.

"You go to war with the Army you have," he said in a rare public airing of rank-and-file concerns among the troops.

In his prepared remarks earlier, Rumsfeld had urged the troops - mostly National Guard and Reserve soldiers - to discount critics of the war in Iraq and to help "win the test of wills" with the insurgents.

Some of soldiers, however, had criticisms of their own - not of the war itself but of how it is being fought.

More here: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041208/D86RGKV00.html

[MrBenchley]

9. Rumsfeld to Troops: Drop Dead

"Spc. Thomas Wilson, for example, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team that is comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session why vehicle armor is still in short supply, nearly two years after the start of the war that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.
Rumsfeld replied that troops should make the best of the conditions they face and said the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it as fast as humanly possible.
"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said. "That’s why my friends and I wouldn’t get near one.""

What is wrong with this sorehead Spc. Thomas Wilson, anyway? Doesn't he realize that we HAD to rush to war because Saddam had WMDs, er, Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks, er, Saddam was torturing Iraqis without an okay from Alberto Gonzalez, um, Iraq has to elect Alawi whether they want to or not, uh, Halliburton was getting kickbacks in theOil for Foo....., well, we just did, that's all.

And if Spc. Thomas Wilson doesn't like it, he should just get his rich daddy to get him transferred to Alabama and walk away without showing up, like the Commander in Chief did.

[uncle ray]

15. slippin my tinfoil hat on here...

"You go to war with the Army you have,"

that comment sure sounds out of context. i think that rummy just parroted what HE was being told by his advisors about the miserable failure the war has been. "You go to war with the Army you have" would more likely mean the people of the army. something like this:

rummy: "Dammit, whay aren't we keeping them damned ragheads under control? what the hell is wrong with the soldiers we are sending over there? where are our KILLING MACHINES?"

advisor: "well sir, you go to war with the Army you have."

get it? an explanation to the BOSS not to the troops. fucking idiot rummy.

oh, and welcome to DU!

[Ironpost]

16. Welcome to DU

[soup]

6. article here

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/343/world/After_pep_talk_troops_readying:.shtml

After pep talk, troops readying for Iraq put tough questions to Rumsfeld

By Robert Burns, Associated Press, 12/8/2004 09:08

>snip<
''Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?'' Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

''We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north,'' Wilson said after asking again.

Rumsfeld replied that troops should make the best of the conditions they face and said the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it as fast as humanly possible.

And, the defense chief added, armor is not always a savior in the kind of combat U.S. troops face in Iraq, where the insurgents' weapon of choice is the roadside bomb, or improvised explosive device that has killed and maimed hundreds, if not thousands, of American troops since the summer of 2003.

''You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up,'' Rumsfeld said.
>snip<

---

still looking for video.

[Ian David]

7. We need to print the story on postcards and mail it to red states

[elehhhhna]

8. The video was on GMA this a.m. -- the sharp intake of breath by 2,000

plus soldiers, followed by whoops & cheers--you have to see it. Then Rummy 'splains that all the armor in the world can't protect you anyway...FUCK HIM. JUST FUCK HIM. They should have ripped off his bullet proof vest right there and let him get a taste of it.

And I'll bet Pvt. Wilson's headed for GITMO right now.

[gatorboy]

10. Here's a link to something similar

http://www.adoptasniper.org/items.html

If they are so well equipped, why do these guys have to literally beg for stuff through a web page???

[elehhhhna]

11. thank you. Hubby threw down & collected $$$ for an employee who

is a sniper in Iraq now (32 years old, married, new dad, called back)--the scopes and ammo wallet thingies they're issued are so sub-par it's atrocious.

[H2O Man]

12. I've seen it 3 times now ....

I really find it disturbing. He is an evil man. It is obvious that he views the soldiers as spare parts. His attitude is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of our troops, and I think that he should be in prison.

[Killarney]

13. what a heartless dick he is!

[rniel]

14. As taxpayers

I would want the military there to be well equipped. I don't know how many 100's of billions of money is heading to iraq to line the pockets of corporations and none of it is going to equipment to protect the soldiers who are really sacrificing.