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WASHINGTON — President Bush and top military commanders scrambled Thursday to contain the political damage from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's contentious meeting with U.S. soldiers bound for combat in Iraq, reassuring troops that the Pentagon was working hard to provide them with more safety equipment.
A day earlier, soldiers confronted Rumsfeld, complaining at their makeshift camp in Kuwait that they lacked proper armor.
In Kuwait, Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb said that new efforts to increase the number of vehicles with armor protection was "a good news story for the Army."
Whitcomb made his comments in a video teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon. In the background, soldiers outfitted a Humvee with armor plating.
More than 6,500 miles away in Washington, Bush said that the "concerns expressed [by the soldiers] are being addressed, and that is, we expect our troops to have the best possible equipment."
The confrontation between Rumsfeld and the troops in Kuwait has highlighted how the U.S. failure to anticipate the Iraqi insurgency has kept the Bush administration on the defensive.
On Thursday, Rumsfeld called a tense exchange with Spc. Thomas Wilson of the Tennessee National Guard "very constructive."
Wilson had told Rumsfeld that troops in Kuwait were forced to rummage through landfills for scrap metal to jury-rig armor for their vehicles before their upcoming journey into Iraq.
"I don't know what the facts are, but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him [Wilson] and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing," Rumsfeld told reporters Thursday in New Delhi, where he was visiting.
The town hall meeting became a political issue, with many Democrats in Congress describing Rumsfeld's answers to some of the soldiers' concerns as "callous."
About the shortage of armor-protected vehicles in Iraq, Rumsfeld told the troops: "It's 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's a matter of production and capability of doing it."
He added: "As you know, you go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
In the teleconference from Kuwait, Whitcomb said that the Army was fast approaching its goal of outfitting every vehicle in Iraq with some degree of armored protection.
During the months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Whitcomb said, war planners saw little military need for sending armored Humvees into Iraq. Military plants in the United States were producing only 30 armored Humvees a month in August of that year, he said.
But as insurgents in Iraq switched to roadside bombs as their weapon of choice, commanders asked that factories increase their production of armored Humvees.
The U.S. has approximately 6,000 factory manufactured armored Humvees in Iraq, Whitcomb said. Commanders say that at least an additional 2,000 are needed. Whitcomb said that 10,000 more vehicles were equipped with "level 2" armor, a kit of armored plates that bolt on to "soft-skinned" vehicles. The plates are less effective because they offer no protection for the top and bottom of the vehicle.
An additional 4,500 vehicles have what Whitcomb called "level 3" armor, a "stopgap" measure of welded steel plates attached to the sides of trucks and Humvees.
Of the 30,000 wheeled vehicles U.S. troops are operating throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, Whitcomb said, approximately 8,000 lack armored protection.
Marine Brig. Gen. Richard Kramlich, commander of the 1st Force Service Support Group in Iraq, said no Marine convoy was permitted to travel without adequate armor.
On Thursday, it was learned that a Tennessee reporter posted with Spc. Wilson's unit may have helped craft the question the soldier posed to Rumsfeld. Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts wrote about his role in an e-mail to colleagues posted on a popular website that tracks news in the media industry.
A day earlier, soldiers confronted Rumsfeld, complaining at their makeshift camp in Kuwait that they lacked proper armor.
In Kuwait, Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb said that new efforts to increase the number of vehicles with armor protection was "a good news story for the Army."
Whitcomb made his comments in a video teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon. In the background, soldiers outfitted a Humvee with armor plating.
More than 6,500 miles away in Washington, Bush said that the "concerns expressed [by the soldiers] are being addressed, and that is, we expect our troops to have the best possible equipment."
The confrontation between Rumsfeld and the troops in Kuwait has highlighted how the U.S. failure to anticipate the Iraqi insurgency has kept the Bush administration on the defensive.
On Thursday, Rumsfeld called a tense exchange with Spc. Thomas Wilson of the Tennessee National Guard "very constructive."
Wilson had told Rumsfeld that troops in Kuwait were forced to rummage through landfills for scrap metal to jury-rig armor for their vehicles before their upcoming journey into Iraq.
"I don't know what the facts are, but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him [Wilson] and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing," Rumsfeld told reporters Thursday in New Delhi, where he was visiting.
The town hall meeting became a political issue, with many Democrats in Congress describing Rumsfeld's answers to some of the soldiers' concerns as "callous."
About the shortage of armor-protected vehicles in Iraq, Rumsfeld told the troops: "It's 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's a matter of production and capability of doing it."
He added: "As you know, you go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
In the teleconference from Kuwait, Whitcomb said that the Army was fast approaching its goal of outfitting every vehicle in Iraq with some degree of armored protection.
During the months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Whitcomb said, war planners saw little military need for sending armored Humvees into Iraq. Military plants in the United States were producing only 30 armored Humvees a month in August of that year, he said.
But as insurgents in Iraq switched to roadside bombs as their weapon of choice, commanders asked that factories increase their production of armored Humvees.
The U.S. has approximately 6,000 factory manufactured armored Humvees in Iraq, Whitcomb said. Commanders say that at least an additional 2,000 are needed. Whitcomb said that 10,000 more vehicles were equipped with "level 2" armor, a kit of armored plates that bolt on to "soft-skinned" vehicles. The plates are less effective because they offer no protection for the top and bottom of the vehicle.
An additional 4,500 vehicles have what Whitcomb called "level 3" armor, a "stopgap" measure of welded steel plates attached to the sides of trucks and Humvees.
Of the 30,000 wheeled vehicles U.S. troops are operating throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, Whitcomb said, approximately 8,000 lack armored protection.
Marine Brig. Gen. Richard Kramlich, commander of the 1st Force Service Support Group in Iraq, said no Marine convoy was permitted to travel without adequate armor.
On Thursday, it was learned that a Tennessee reporter posted with Spc. Wilson's unit may have helped craft the question the soldier posed to Rumsfeld. Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts wrote about his role in an e-mail to colleagues posted on a popular website that tracks news in the media industry.
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