Stanford CIS

Please Someone Explain "Physics" to Rumsfeld, and then "Incompetence"

By Stanford Center for Internet and Society on
soldier.jpg

In his response to soldier Wilson, Rumsfeld said that the failure to produce more armored Humvees was a matter of "physics."

It seems hard to imagine that, with the Iraq invasion having been planned since 2002, that the laws of physics would not have permitted additional armor.

Rather, this is a matter of incompetence--an incompetence which has been demonstrated again and again by this Administration in its handling of the Iraqi occupatio.  Recall, for example, that General Shinseki had warned of the need for hundreds of thousands of troops for the occupation, and he was sidelined as a result.  (Note that Rumsfeld was asked publicly by a soldier about inadequate armor seven months ago in a forum in Baghdad.)

Note that the media has assumed that when Rumsfeld said "you go to war with the Army you have" he was referring to the equipment.  The more natural reading is that he was referring to the soldiers.  I suspect that the remark reflected Rumsfeld's irritation that a soldier was questioning his leadership.

Please, President Bush, can we have someone who will protect our troops?

Published in: Blog