Troops confront Rumsfeld
2004-12-08 17:16
Camp Buehring, Kuwait - American troops waiting in the Kuwaiti desert to go into Iraq on Wednesday challenged US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld about their safety and their future in the country.
Rumsfeld went to Camp Buehring, 20km from the Iraq border, to face one of the toughest question-and-answer sessions with troops since the start of the Iraq campaign in March 2003.
About 1 800 of the 10 000 troops at Camp Buehring gathered to hear the US defence chief say that Iraqis will have to take over their own security to allow foreign troops to leave after the January 30 election.
But one soldier was loudly cheered as he told Rumsfeld soldiers were "digging through landfills" to find scrap metal to bolster the hundreds of US trucks and other military vehicles that pour across the frontier into Iraq each day.
"Our soldiers have been fighting in Iraq for coming up to three years, a lot of us are getting ready to move north pretty soon," said the soldier.
"Our vehicles are not armoured. We are digging up pieces of rusting scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass that has already been shot up, dropped, busted, picking the best for our vehicles to take into combat.
"We do not have proper armour on our vehicles to carry with us north."
The camp is a major staging post for US troops heading into or out of Iraq.
Surprise
The challenge over armour for vehicles surprised everyone present.
Rumsfeld replied that he had discussed security for US convoys on the way to the camp and that every available armoured vehicle from around the globe was being sent to Iraq.
"It is essentially a matter of physics, it is not a matter of money, it is not a matter on the part of the army of desire. It is a matter of production and capability of doing it."
Rumsfeld added: "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."
No mention was made of the fact that about 1 000 troops have now been killed in combat in Iraq.
But the defence secretary was pressed about the future of Iraq and the about 140 000 US troops there.
"The facts on the ground" will determine how fast troops from the United States and its coalition partners leave, he said.