U.S. GIs Hit Rumsfeld With Hard Questions

[cableguy]

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment…Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?” Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld.

Click here for story

(Mod’s note: I changed the format of your link to stop it stretching the page - Please do the same in future in case of long URLs - Juba)

Wilson raised a very valid question. Unfortunately, Rumsfeld, not surprisingly, didn’t have a very good answer. I think that the US government has an obligation to ensure that troops sent to foreign lands be given adequate armament to ensure that they can, possibly, minimize the danger they are facing on a minute to minute basis. Sadly, the lives of troops sent to Iraq has never been a very important issue for Mr. Bush and his inner circle.
Now, troops are speaking out for all us folks lucky enough not to be send to Iraq to see what is really happening there. Will things now start to change. Not likely but it is good to hear directly from the troops there what they think of things in Iraq. To Mr. Wilson I say :bravo:

[Comrade_Stalin]

Poor cableguy.

[U.S. Soldiers Simply Not Getting What They Need

[ac_dropout]

I disagree with the title of the thread. I mean the question were not “difficult” or “hard” to answer.

They were really more “embarrassing” more than anything else.

[Jack_Burton]

[quote] “I don’t know what the facts are but somebody’s certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that’s a good thing. I think it’s a very constructive exchange,” Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him on Thursday in India, another stop on a regional tour.[/quote] - speaking of PFC Wilson who spoke about digging for scrap metal to add armor to his vehicle.

Gee, I sure like to know what he knows that we don’t know but we ought to know, unless he doesn’t know what we may know…

holy cripes, batman, what is rumsfeld smoking.

[mofangongren]

At first I thought Rumsfeld had just gotten himself tripped up in the middle of asking and answering his own questions, but after re-reading it a few times I think you’re right. Perhaps his new media advisor is M.C. Escher.

[fred_smith]

Whoops!! You were saying…

The question a U.S. soldier asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday about the lack of armor on some combat vehicles in Iraq was planted by a newspaper reporter embedded with the soldier’s unit, the reporter told colleagues in an e-mail.

Click here for CNN report

[Hobbes]

[quote=“fred smith”]Whoops!! You were saying…

The question a U.S. soldier asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday about the lack of armor on some combat vehicles in Iraq was planted by a newspaper reporter embedded with the soldier’s unit, the reporter told colleagues in an e-mail.

Click here for CNN report[/quote]

That poor reporter. He goes to all this trouble to try and fake a story, and then not only does he get caught Dan Rathering his “news” story, but Rummy’s response ends up getting half of the coverage ink.

I think the reporter who staged the fake question stunt should also have supplied Rumsfeld with the answer he was supposed to read. Something like: “Well, the answer to that question is ‘too bad. so sad.’ We actually considered using our magic wand to create armor for you GIs, but then it ocurred to us that the wand could be better used producing piles of gold coins to give to Halliburton. So that’s what we did.”

The reporter should have realized: “Hey, if I’m going to create a fictional story, I may as well go all out and give scripted answers to Rummy too. If he accidentally reads my scripted answers then at the very least I know the NY Times and CBS will run with it…”

[flike]

[quote=“Hobbes”]That poor reporter. He goes to all this trouble to try and fake a story, and then not only does he get caught Dan Rathering his “news” story, but Rummy’s response ends up getting half of the coverage ink.
…
The reporter should have realized: “Hey, if I’m going to create a fictional [?] story, I may as well go all out and give scripted answers to Rummy too. If he accidentally reads my scripted answers then at the very least I know the NY Times and CBS will run with it…”[/quote]

Maybe my irony meter’s on the blink, but I fail to see how this story was ‘fake.’

Or are you saying, Hobbes, that the reporter faked the applause following the asking as well?

Just because the reporter gave the question to Wilson doesn’t imply that it’s one Wilson never wanted an answer to. And that the reporter - not the soldier - is responsible for the prose damn sure doesn’t imply that we Americans can thus stick our heads in the sand and ignore it.

You guys need to be more careful or the new verb ‘to Rather’ is going rather to start leaving teeth marks in your ass when you use it.

[Satellite_TV]

[quote=“fred smith”]Whoops!! You were saying…

The question a U.S. soldier asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday about the lack of armor on some combat vehicles in Iraq was planted by a newspaper reporter embedded with the soldier’s unit, the reporter told colleagues in an e-mail.

Click here for CNN report[/quote]

Damn, another sting operation gone bad… when are reports going to learn not to go down the entrapment route.

[Flipper]

not only did he plant the question, the reporter also talked to the guy in charge of the microphone to make sure his hand picked soldier got chosen to ask his question.

so if you’re a reporter who just compromised your journalistic integrity, what do you do? why you brag about it in an email, of course!

drudgereport.com/flashcp.htm

:bravo:

[butcher_boy]

@Flipper

so if you’re a reporter who just compromised your journalistic integrity, what do you do?

Sorry, but I don’t get how he compromised his journalistic integrity. If the soldier didn’t want to ask the question, he didn’t have to. If the sgt didn’t think the question was good then he didn’t need to offer the mic. The report I read said that the journo worked with 2 GIs to put the question together. So where is the loss of integrity?

[flike]

[quote=“Satellite TV”][quote=“fred smith”]Whoops!! You were saying…

The question a U.S. soldier asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday about the lack of armor on some combat vehicles in Iraq was planted by a newspaper reporter embedded with the soldier’s unit, the reporter told colleagues in an e-mail.

Click here for CNN report[/quote]

Damn, another sting operation gone bad… when are reports going to learn not to go down the entrapment route.[/quote]

Probably as soon as they get the memo saying that the definition of entrapment has changed.

[Flipper]

@butcher boy

[quote=“Flipper”]so if you’re a reporter who just compromised your journalistic integrity, what do you do?

Sorry, but I don’t get how he compromised his journalistic integrity. If the soldier didn’t want to ask the question, he didn’t have to. If the sgt didn’t think the question was good then he didn’t need to offer the mic. The report I read said that the journo worked with 2 GIs to put the question together. So where is the loss of integrity?[/quote]

huh? the sgt wasn’t supposed to decide which questions get asked. he was supposed to pick soldiers at random. the reporter arranged with the sgt so that his question would get asked. he was, in fact, making news as opposed to just reporting it.

[BroonAle]

@Flipper

huh? the sgt wasn’t supposed to decide which questions get asked. he was supposed to pick soldiers at random. the reporter arranged with the sgt so that his question would get asked. he was, in fact, making news as opposed to just reporting it.

The question needed to be asked so who gives a shit HOW it was done. Bumsfeld caught on the back foot and Bushit camp whinges about ‘journalistic integrity’. Bollocks. Good on the journo and good on the Sgt. and GI for having the balls to go along with it.

It’s a shame that only questions were fired at Donald Smarmyshitfeld.

BroonAsks

[Mucha_Man]

@Flipper

[quote=“butcher boy”][quote=“Flipper”]so if you’re a reporter who just compromised your journalistic integrity, what do you do?

Sorry, but I don’t get how he compromised his journalistic integrity. If the soldier didn’t want to ask the question, he didn’t have to. If the sgt didn’t think the question was good then he didn’t need to offer the mic. The report I read said that the journo worked with 2 GIs to put the question together. So where is the loss of integrity?[/quote]

huh? the sgt wasn’t supposed to decide which questions get asked. he was supposed to pick soldiers at random. the reporter arranged with the sgt so that his question would get asked. he was, in fact, making news as opposed to just reporting it.[/quote]

Your position on this is astonishing to say the least. The reporter did not make news, he got a question asked. he did not, as far as we know, fake the response by the soldiers watching nor did he manipulate Rumsfeld’s answer.

And reporter do not just report news. What does that even mean? Is news some tangible substance? Do you make news in the same way you make a cake? Is news something out there that you just find and report? No, news is shaped, created out of a mess of facts that have no shape to begin with. And some “news” only comes to light when you begin to ask the right questions.

Reporter one: “Mr Rumsfeld, how is the war going in Iraq?”
Reporter two: “Mr Rumsfled, is it true soldiers are scrounging in ruins for armor?”

Sometimes you have to get sneaky to get the truth out when dealing with very powerful people. As obvious as this statement is, it is incredible how many don’t get it. “But I trust people who have wealth, power and influence over the media and who have the resources of the federal government to always be honest with us regular folk.”

BTW this is also not the first time the issue has been brought up. The last time Rumsfeld visited troops he was asked a similar question. He gave a better answer last time: equipment was being made as he spoke. The problem is that 6 months or a year later that excuse no longer washes well and Rumsfeld was characteristically condescending, dismissive and evasive which is why this story has gotten covered.

I don’t know, and neither do you, the true nature of equipment supplies in Iraq. They may be adequate. They may not be. But to suggest that a reporter who believes there is a story being covered up cannot, and should not try to bring it out into the open, even if that involves a little subterfuge, is unpatriotic, unmanly, and immoral.

[Mucha_Man]

[quote=“Flipper”]

so if you’re a reporter who just compromised your journalistic integrity, what do you do? why you brag about it in an email, of course!

drudgereport.com/flashcp.htm

:bravo:[/quote]

He is a reporter who got an important scoop. He has every right to brag.

BTW, here is part of the email:

I have been trying to get this story out for weeks- as soon as I foud out I would be on an unarmored truck- and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.

Reporter thinks he has an important story. Feels he has a chance to garner greater coverage for the story. Uses opportunity. And for this he has lost his integrity?

I guess to flipper journalistic integrity means craven acceptance of the party line.

[Mucha_Man]

[quote=“Hobbes”][

That poor reporter. He goes to all this trouble to try and fake a story, and then not only does he get caught Dan Rathering his “news” story, but Rummy’s response ends up getting half of the coverage ink.

The reporter should have realized: “Hey, if I’m going to create a fictional story, I may as well go all out and give scripted answers to Rummy too. If he accidentally reads my scripted answers then at the very least I know the NY Times and CBS will run with it…”[/quote]

That poor reporter already wrote two articles on the matter of inadequate armor so how was he faking it or creating a fictional story by trying to get a bigger audience?

The more one reads the more real this issue becomes. Even Bush said:

[quote]Even President Bush weighed in, telling reporters at the White House Thursday that the military is working to address the issue, and that he didn’t blame the soldier for asking such a tough question.

“If I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country, I would want to ask the secretary of defense the same question. And that is, ‘Are we getting the best we can get us?’ And they deserve the best,” Bush said. [/quote]

Even Bush is admitting the issue is real and soldiers have a right to complain. And as I said, it is not the first time soldiers have addressed this question to Rumfeld. No one suggested last time it was a fake question so why is it now?

[Flipper]

what was the scoop the reporter got? that rumsfeld was asked about armor? how is that a scoop when tons of press were present there?

manipulating an open q&a session to make sure the story you want to write(“rumsfeld asked about armor by soldier”) happens shows a complete lack of journalistic integrity.

i guess your definition of integrity, mucha, is whatever it takes to get your point across. do you think cbs using faked documents against bush showed a lack of journalistic integrity?

[Flipper]

[quote=“Mucha (Muzha) Man”]
Reporter thinks he has an important story. Feels he has a chance to garner greater coverage for the story. Uses opportunity. And for this he has lost his integrity?

I guess to flipper journalistic integrity means craven acceptance of the party line.[/quote]

omg this is just pathetic. he “uses opportunity” to garner greater coverage of his past stories by [color=red]rigging a q&a[/color]. so manipulating an open q&a is just another opportunity to be used?

[Flipper]

[quote=“Mucha (Muzha) Man”]
Your position on this is astonishing to say the least. The reporter did not make news, he got a question asked. [/quote]

at a q&a where the questions were supposed to be asked by soldiers and NOT reporters. you admit yourself he manipulated the event to get his question asked. what’s astonishing is your inability to grasp how rigging a q&a is a breach of journalistic protocol.