Today Reuters News Service and others are picking up the statements that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made to troops currently in Kuwait preparing to move north into Iraq. Asoldiers that will soon be going to Iraq, asked why “soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles? And why don’t we have those resources readily available to us?” One of the reasons Rumsfeld gave was “”As you know, you go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
What a pathetic response. If ever there was a war where a nation had the time to have the “Army you might want or wish to have” the war in Iraq is it. The United States picked the time and place. Our troops should have had everything they needed to bring as many of them home safety as possible. Instead, over a year President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished,” a lame excuse like this is used to justify asking our sons and daughter to risk their lives without adequate protection.