Troops Tell Rumsfeld They’d Like First Shot at Bin Laden

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s message to troops in and near Afghanistan on Sunday was part pep talk and part Jay Leno.

After viewing the wooden saddles used by Army Green Berets in northern Afghanistan and walking past Russian-made MIG-27 and MIG-29 fighter jets used by the air force of a nation reporters were told not to disclose, Rumsfeld took the podium and asked: “Where’s Timothy Murphy?” When a lanky soldier in the front row rose, Rumsfeld warbled, “Happy Birthday tooooo yooooou.”

An Air Force member asked Rumsfeld an impolitic question: Is Iraq the next battleground in the war on terrorism? The secretary, who has driven fear into the hearts of anonymously quoted Pentagon underlings who disclose information on future operations, tilted his head and asked, “What’s your rank?” Then he deadpanned, “If I wanted to talk about Iraq I would have brought it up.”

The next soldier, from Ft. Bragg, N.C., had a request: “If we get [Osama] bin Laden, is there any chance you can bring him here for about 15 minutes?”

It was a common sentiment at both a base outside Afghanistan and at Bagram air base near the Afghan capital, Kabul, where Rumsfeld also stopped Sunday.

“Everybody here, they’d love to put two rounds in Bin Laden for what he did,” said a first sergeant and 19-year Army veteran named Tim; under military policy he did not give his last name. “Motivation is high here.”

At each base, the first question troops asked Rumsfeld was when they would be sent home, but many said they were glad to be performing the kind of mission for which they had spent years training.

“I want this thing to end in a hurry, that’s for sure,” said Tim, the first sergeant, who has been deployed to Grenada, Panama and Saudi Arabia. “But we’re going to continue as long as it takes. And we’ll go to another theater if they ask us.”

The troops described their Taliban and Al Qaeda foes as widely varying in battle readiness, but many said the enemies crumbled in the face of more disciplined U.S. forces.

“Anybody who shoots at you, you respect them,” said Mike, a Virginian at the base near Afghanistan who wore no insignia and had the beard and long hair favored by some special operations soldiers.

The guest of honor was clearly enjoying himself. On the plane from Afghanistan to Tbilisi, Georgia, Rumsfeld said he felt exhilarated by the visits.

“It always gives me a lot of energy and a great feeling to talk to them, and to see their faces and what a wonderful job they’re doing,” he said.

Members of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division were at both bases Rumsfeld visited, and are also deployed in the Sinai Peninsula, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, Yugoslavia.

“We’re proud of the fact that this division is doing the nation’s work,” said Col. Joe Smith, chief of staff of the division at the base outside Afghanistan and one of the few military members who gave his full name.

“I tell my friends that the reason we’re here is so they can do the things that they do, the Saturday night thing,” said Darren, a 10th Mountain sergeant at the same base. “Where I’m from in Pennsylvania is about 45 minutes from the World Trade Center, so it really hit home.”

Sitting next to him in one of dozens of tan tents at the base was Terry, a staff sergeant from New York. Asked about John Walker Lindh, the Taliban fighter from Marin County now being held by the U.S. military, Terry said he was not offended.

“That’s what America is all about, the freedom to make your own choices,” he said.

In their tents and on their computer screen savers are copies of a photo of a New York firefighter handing a flag to a soldier.

“They started this,” Darren said of the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks. “We’re finishing it.”