Disrguntled soldier complains to Rumsfeld скачать в хорошем качестве

Disrguntled soldier complains to Rumsfeld

(8 Dec 2004) 1. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld standing in front of troops 2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Thomas Wilson, Army Specialist - 278th Regimental Combat Team: "We've had troops in Iraq for coming up on for three years and we've all been staged here out of Kuwait. Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local land fields for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up armour our vehicles and why don't we have those resources readily available to us." (applause and cheering from soldiers) 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary: "I missed the first part of your question, could you repeat that?" 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Thomas Wilson, Army Specialist - 278th Regimental Combat Team: "Our soldiers have been fighting in Iraq for coming up on three years. A lot of us are getting ready to move north real soon. Our vehicles are not armoured. We are are digging pieces of rusted scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass that has already been shot up, dropped, busted, picking the best out of this scrap to put on our vehicles go into combat. We do not have proper armour vehicles to carry with us north." 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary: "I talked to the general coming out here about the pace with which the vehicles are being armoured. They are being brought from all over the world wherever they are not needed to a place here where they are needed. I am told they are being.. the army is, I think it is something like 400 a month are being done and it is essentially a matter of physics. It isn't a matter of money, it isn't a matter on the part of the army of desire, it is a matter of production and capability of doing it. 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. Since the Iraq conflict began the army has been pressing ahead to produce the armour necessary, at a rate they believe, it is a greatly expanded rate from what existed previously, but it's a rate they believe is the rate all that can be accomplished at this moment." 6. Cutaway of soldiers STORYLINE: After delivering a pep talk in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, designed to energize US troops preparing to head for Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld got a little "talking to" himself from disgruntled soldiers. The soldiers complained to Rumsfeld about the lack of armour 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. Army Specialist Thomas Wilson, for example, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team, comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session why vehicle armour is still in short supply, nearly three years after the war in Iraq began. "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmour 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 defence. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...