WAR: Reporter "Planted" Rumsfeld Questions

Originally posted by Indy
Does it disgust you that a reporter planted the question? Personally it disgusts me more the way Rumsfeld answered it. He acts as if he didn't catch the entire question to give himself more time to think up a lie. Then when he couldn't think of one he came up with a really cold and lame response. The man is spineless.

Sorry but I disagree his answer was not spineless it was a fact of life. When we go to war we go with what we have available to us at the time.

Do you think for one minute that they could have conprehended that Bin laden/Alquieda was going to send in all kinds of insurgents that can only fight dirty, let alone hide behind innocient women and childred, fight from inside of Mosques? Perhaps they should have put you in charge, I suppose that you could have done a better job. Or are you on the side of Al quieda?

As you well know Americans do not fight using cars planted with bombs and women in them. We do not hide in our churches either. Unlike them we try to avoid areas with innocents in them and we certainly have no yellow stripes down our back. Well that is not all of us. I do realize we now have one or two cowards trying to hide in Canada as did some during Nam. We also have one muslim I understand who has now been charged with desertion. Boy that does not surpirse me at all, the rest of them do not want to fight either. Give them a Skirt and a car with a bomb hidden inside though and they are all for it.

If these so called heros of Islam are such great fighters why can't they come out and fight like real men do? I will tell you why, the answer is simple they are nothing more then cowards. Please do not give me that stuff they preach about going to heaven where there are only virgins, I will not buy it.

The prevalence of the improvised explosive device and the insurgent war was not on the minds of those who designed, tested, and approved the vehicles in use in Iraq. I wish there were more Vietnam-era Marines here who could attest to the equipment and gear we had to use in Vietnam. Almost everything we had was either left over from WWII and Korea or was hand-me-downs from the US Army.

One of my best friends had his truck hit by an unexploded 250 lb bomb that had been rigged as to explode on command. He was blown from his truck into a rice paddy. When the medivac choppers arrived he was left for dead and managed to move just enough for someone to see and get the chopper to return. His story is one of the more extreme I have heard, but such events were not unheard of in Vietnam, even though convoy routes were usually heavily guarded both on the ground and from the air.

So, really those who fault the military for these problems are not being very fair or realistic. Trucks and Humvees were not designed for the problems faced in Iraq and the military is playing catch-up ball.

[edit on 04/12/11 by GradyPhilpott]

So, really those who fault the military for these problems are not being very fair or realistic. Trucks and Humvees were not designed for the problems faced in Iraq and the military is playing catch-up ball.

I could not agree with you more Grady. Why can't people understand what is going on here, it is not the fault of the military. Hell nite vision glasses alone have shown we have better equipment for nite fighting. I am sure there is no need to rehash the days after Sadam was driven out of Kuwait. One thing you have to give the Iraq guard, they did not hide in mosques nor did they use cars with bombs. They used tanks and some of the best. In that case we had the better tanks and planes, the result of that war proved it.

Shots... at this point I think I probably could have done a better job than Rumsfeld. The man is an idiot. I think any reasonable person would have expected exactly the problems we are having today. And by definition these people are not insurgents.

1. Rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government.
2. Rebelling against the leadership of a political party.
(souce: dictionary.com)

We are an invading force. Kind of hard to call the local who fight against an invading for "insurgents". But anyway. Rumsfeld has mismanaged this war. The leaders involved have mismanaged the war. It was obvious from day one that they were trying to do nothing more than show off for the press. They wanted to show how fast they could get to Baghdad. Their arrogance left the rear of the convoys unprotected which allowed for easy ambushes. They went in short of personnel. Intelligence was bad. Their plan was bad. They needed a war to keep attention off of domestic problems and they got it.

But don't tell me for a minute that this war was well planned and well executed. It simply was not.

I was part of the invasion of Iraq. When we were staging in Kuwait, we lined the floor of our HUMVEEs with sandbags, tried to prop them against our plastic doors, anywhere we could put them! They knew since day one we needed armor! Bush had publically been trying to find a reason to invade for at least a year, it's not like we didn't have time. Heck, it's not like Saddam was a threat, we could of invaded anytime we wanted. We had time to prepare. Bush and his cronies just heard what they wanted to hear from Chalabi, and botched the invasion since day one.

Exactly. And in the mean time North Korea continues to become a greater threat and they admitted to their plans.

Personally, I think they should give Rumsfeld's job to the person who planned this:

www.cnn.com...

They didn't seem to have any problems with the planning, and were much more generous!!!

I'm sorry, but their is something wrong when they allow our troops to go without the necessary equipment and yet, spend this kind of outrageous money patting themselves on the back for a "job well done"...

I don't care how the question got asked, I am just glad it got asked, and a little irked that it wasn't asked before the elections!!! We the small people of the country are being asked to sacrifice, our money, and more importantly OUR CHILDREN, for this war.....well, let's see some sacrifice from the top dogs too!!! A little more time doing their jobs, a little less time congratulating themselves for the job NOT YET DONE! or done half-arsed! And, a little less of a payraise, and a little more going into getting that job done right!

Do you think for one minute that they could have conprehended that Bin laden/Alquieda was going to send in all kinds of insurgents that can only fight dirty, let alone hide behind innocient women and childred, fight from inside of Mosques?

Yes actually...

Such have been the tactics of terrorists since ancient times. It should have been a given. To have planned for anything else would be gross negligence....

Originally posted by Gazrok

Do you think for one minute that they could have conprehended that Bin laden/Alquieda was going to send in all kinds of insurgents that can only fight dirty, let alone hide behind innocient women and childred, fight from inside of Mosques?

Yes actually...

Such have been the tactics of terrorists since ancient times. It should have been a given. To have planned for anything else would be gross negligence....

Well I think we have to agree that we disagree on this point.

I was talking more about car bombs then sneak tactics. Cars have only been around for approximately 100 years and use of bombs in combination with "CARS" is a rather recent devopment.

Well, let's see, we went into Iraq because, susposedly, they were connected to terrorism, and we have declared war on the terrorists....thus the words...war against terrorism, right. okay, so we are in iraq figting the war against terrorism, right...
well, I'm sorry, but car bombings seem to be one of their preferred methods of attacks, so how can you pretend that they didn't have a clue that there would be car bombings in Iraq?