Is it just the Moose's perception, but doesn't Rumsfeld increasingly bear a resemblance to Captain Queeg in the Caine Mutiny?
The Moose is as proud of Specialist Thomas Wilson as he is ashamed of the man who is the leader of our defense establishment. Today's Washington Post account of the Rumsfeld meeting yesterday with the troops in Kuwait -
"Mr. Rumsfeld, seemingly caught off guard by the sharp questioning, responded that the military was producing extra armor for Humvees and trucks as fast as possible, but that the soldiers would have to cope with equipment shortages. "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time," he said.
"Specialist Thomas Wilson, a scout with a Tennessee National Guard unit set to roll into Iraq this week, was the first to step forward, saying that soldiers had had to scrounge through landfills here for pieces of rusty scrap metal and bulletproof glass - what they called "hillbilly armor" - to bolt to their trucks."
Rumsfeld went on to explain that pure "physics" is the reason that the troops could not be supplied with sufficient armored vehicles. Pretty neat, huh? Maybe "physics" can replace "the dog ate my homework" as the universal excuse that students give their teachers for uncompleted assignments. Perhaps, in a face saving move, the President can just shift Rumsfeld over to the Education Department where Rummy can apply his novel notions of accountability to the nation's schools - the students will love the lowering of standards.
Of course, the truth is that it was the President that determined the timing of this war. If there wasn't enough equipment before the war, the President could have delayed the start at the recommendation of his Secretary of Defense. It is not as if we were facing a Pearl Harbor situation. And if we are truly at war, why doesn't the President take extraordinary measures as FDR did during the second world war and force the manufacturers to turn out the necessary vehicles to ensure our troops' safety?
Now that our troops on the front lines proven they have the gumption to take on Rummy, how about Republican legislators on Capitol Hill? The election is over, and your boy is back in for another term. Can't you now step forward and call for the removal of this national embarrassment, the Secretary for Defense?
-- | 
Email
this post
