thedrifter
12-19-04, 07:14 AM
12-16-2004
From the Editor:
Armor Shortage and the ‘Usual Suspects’
By Ed Offley
In the pre-holiday spirit of fairness, balance and even-handedness, I’d like to say that both Rush Limbaugh and the Democrats are equally wrong.
So too are Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, his legion of critics on the Left (and Right), and both houses of Congress. And in the spirit of things Red and Blue, I’d like to toss in the Presidential Inaugural Committee for good measure.
The debate topic this week, of course, is who screwed up the provisioning of armor for the fleet of Humvees and cargo trucks that has become the target of choice in Iraq for the insurgents.
At this juncture, a better question would be: Who isn’t culpable one way or another?
Let’s take this one suspect at a time.
As one who agrees with Mr. Limbaugh more often than not, I am pained to say that his weeklong rant against Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts has been totally off base. The famed radio commentator has essentially accused Pitts as serving as a deep-cover agent for all of Rumsfeld’s foes for his work in helping National Guard Spc. Thomas Wilson ask the “question heard ‘round the world” last week about lags in the up-armoring program: “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to ‘up-armor' our vehicles?”
The Pentagon’s response to Wilson’s question has been instructive: Within the past seven days, DoD has scrambled to increase production of armored Humvees and “up armoring” kits for thin-skinned vehicles already in Iraq. The Air Force has announced an increase in C-130 airlift flights throughout Iraq to enable the force to reduce its dependence on ground convoys. And DoD officials have admitted that they were wrong to initially say the armor manufacturers were running at full capacity, that there really was room to expand the production rate and this is being done. Moreover, Rumsfeld (to his credit) told the troops last week he was ordering all armored Humvees being used in the Washington, D.C., region to Iraq.
That sounds to me a hell of a lot like an admission that Sgt. Wilson and his National Guard unit were on to something.
To all of the Democrats – congressional and otherwise – who have pounced upon Rumsfeld for his seemingly flippant response to the soldier (“As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time”), I am driven to rejoin: Your overriding votes last year, ultimately unsuccessful, to deny the Pentagon its $87 billion supplemental budget request to correct equipment shortages such as vehicle and body armor, denies you any moral high ground to attack Rumsfeld, the DoD and the Army on this issue.
To congressional Democrats and Republicans alike, who voted in recent months to strip the 2005 Defense appropriations act of over $2.3 billion in O&M and procurement funds – all in the name of fiscal conservatism, but in reality to cover that much spending embedded in the defense budget for personal pork items, I say from the bottom of my ex-REMF heart: Shaddap.
To members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who just this week (that is, after the armor flap was lampooned on “Saturday Night Live,” making it a bona fide controversy) announced hearings in January to grill the usual suspects over this belatedly discovered scandal, I ask: Why weren’t you aware of this earlier? And if you were aware, as I suspect you were, how do you think such a selective and curious timing of this convenient outrage (first, the Guardsman’s question; second, “Saturday Night Live,” third, the hearings announcement) will go unnoticed?
And to the Presidential Inaugural Committee, I suggest: Rather than spending between $30-50 million on a bunch of gala balls and black-tie parties next month, why not earmark some or even all of that money you hope to shake down from your deep-pocket supporters to pay for some ballistic glass and vehicle armor? Throwing a party while soldiers are still getting blown up by RPGs and roadside bombs seems a bit hypocritical, especially when your theme is one in salute to the military, “Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service.”
And finally, to Secretary Rumsfeld, I say, learn from a bad week. If you are as aware of defense issues as your record suggests, I recommend you ask the U.S. Army why it never deployed the 9th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis to the 1991 Gulf War. (Hint: It had more thin-skinned Humvees than tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored trucks.)
As the tidings of comfort and joy approach, I have one final suggestion. Let’s skip the selective outrage and obligatory political show trials and fix the ******* problem.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2004 Ed Offley.
Ellie
From the Editor:
Armor Shortage and the ‘Usual Suspects’
By Ed Offley
In the pre-holiday spirit of fairness, balance and even-handedness, I’d like to say that both Rush Limbaugh and the Democrats are equally wrong.
So too are Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, his legion of critics on the Left (and Right), and both houses of Congress. And in the spirit of things Red and Blue, I’d like to toss in the Presidential Inaugural Committee for good measure.
The debate topic this week, of course, is who screwed up the provisioning of armor for the fleet of Humvees and cargo trucks that has become the target of choice in Iraq for the insurgents.
At this juncture, a better question would be: Who isn’t culpable one way or another?
Let’s take this one suspect at a time.
As one who agrees with Mr. Limbaugh more often than not, I am pained to say that his weeklong rant against Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts has been totally off base. The famed radio commentator has essentially accused Pitts as serving as a deep-cover agent for all of Rumsfeld’s foes for his work in helping National Guard Spc. Thomas Wilson ask the “question heard ‘round the world” last week about lags in the up-armoring program: “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to ‘up-armor' our vehicles?”
The Pentagon’s response to Wilson’s question has been instructive: Within the past seven days, DoD has scrambled to increase production of armored Humvees and “up armoring” kits for thin-skinned vehicles already in Iraq. The Air Force has announced an increase in C-130 airlift flights throughout Iraq to enable the force to reduce its dependence on ground convoys. And DoD officials have admitted that they were wrong to initially say the armor manufacturers were running at full capacity, that there really was room to expand the production rate and this is being done. Moreover, Rumsfeld (to his credit) told the troops last week he was ordering all armored Humvees being used in the Washington, D.C., region to Iraq.
That sounds to me a hell of a lot like an admission that Sgt. Wilson and his National Guard unit were on to something.
To all of the Democrats – congressional and otherwise – who have pounced upon Rumsfeld for his seemingly flippant response to the soldier (“As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time”), I am driven to rejoin: Your overriding votes last year, ultimately unsuccessful, to deny the Pentagon its $87 billion supplemental budget request to correct equipment shortages such as vehicle and body armor, denies you any moral high ground to attack Rumsfeld, the DoD and the Army on this issue.
To congressional Democrats and Republicans alike, who voted in recent months to strip the 2005 Defense appropriations act of over $2.3 billion in O&M and procurement funds – all in the name of fiscal conservatism, but in reality to cover that much spending embedded in the defense budget for personal pork items, I say from the bottom of my ex-REMF heart: Shaddap.
To members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who just this week (that is, after the armor flap was lampooned on “Saturday Night Live,” making it a bona fide controversy) announced hearings in January to grill the usual suspects over this belatedly discovered scandal, I ask: Why weren’t you aware of this earlier? And if you were aware, as I suspect you were, how do you think such a selective and curious timing of this convenient outrage (first, the Guardsman’s question; second, “Saturday Night Live,” third, the hearings announcement) will go unnoticed?
And to the Presidential Inaugural Committee, I suggest: Rather than spending between $30-50 million on a bunch of gala balls and black-tie parties next month, why not earmark some or even all of that money you hope to shake down from your deep-pocket supporters to pay for some ballistic glass and vehicle armor? Throwing a party while soldiers are still getting blown up by RPGs and roadside bombs seems a bit hypocritical, especially when your theme is one in salute to the military, “Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service.”
And finally, to Secretary Rumsfeld, I say, learn from a bad week. If you are as aware of defense issues as your record suggests, I recommend you ask the U.S. Army why it never deployed the 9th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis to the 1991 Gulf War. (Hint: It had more thin-skinned Humvees than tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored trucks.)
As the tidings of comfort and joy approach, I have one final suggestion. Let’s skip the selective outrage and obligatory political show trials and fix the ******* problem.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2004 Ed Offley.
Ellie