RE: Rumsfeld comments disapointing
I believe we should have been better prepared but the fact that we were not does not effect the actions we must take at that time.
The terrorist picked the time and place of the 9/11 attacks. Our action after that had to consider many things. One was when and to a degree where we started our actions. Too much time had already been lost because of a lack of action over many years. Therefore the comment..."You go to war with the Army you have" is exactly correct, IMO.
Any further delay, hesitation or reluctance to strike when and where we now choose is a set back before we start.
Our Military is the best equip in the world now and as time moves on it will be better equiped. I beleive our troops deserve the best each and everyone of them. Unfortunately we can not always wait for that type of thing to happen. Hence...Rumsfeld replied that troops should make the best of the conditions... Our fathers did it, I and other men my age did it and the troops of the future will do it. That is life and death in war infortunately but it is reality.
Why does the infantry soldier charge the machine gun and get gunned down in an open field of fire and another rise up and charge in his place? They have heavy air and heavy armor support, why don't they just wait for it and advance safely?
Because it will be too late. Maybe they'll be over run, maybe the enemy will escape and they'll just have to do it all over agian with the same risk of loss.
We as a Nation needed to do what we did, Send our soldiers into harms way, when we did with what they had at that time. It is done in all wars and will always be done. It is not a matter of not caring, it is a matter of taking the action you must when you are forced to do so and where it is needed.
The men who send our troops into combat all sit in nice cozy surrounding compared to the troops. It would not do us much good to have the leaders on the front lines and lossing them. That works great in the movies but in real life those that lead from the front usually die there and are of little use to the troops other than martyrs and good reading matieral in history books.
Rumsfeld for all intents and purposes is the father of the all volunteer Military. He proposed it back during the VN War. He believed that if you paid the troops a decent pay, gave them the best training and equipment you could have the best Military with the best people. Back then he was laughed at for such an idea. He is now the man second in charge of just such a Military.
I see his comment differently, maybe because of my lifes experiences, not because of how I feel it should be.
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Now you have to picture a combination of PeeWEE Herman and Wally Cox but with less muscle tone, trying to be intimidating None of this is funny! Message edited by Cougar Mag -- 1/7/2005 1:16:42 AM >/b]
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