The army is working to get more armored vehicles out to soldiers and marines in Iraq, a top general said on December 9, hoping to quiet a controversy started by a soldier's public complaint to the US defense secretary.
"I don't need to tell you how serious we take this. I look at the casualty reports every day," said Lt. Gen. Steve Whitcomb, the commander of the 3rd Army Corps and the commander of coalition land forces in the Middle East for US Central Command. "We accept our responsibility to get our troops the best protection that we can. And that's what we are about doing."
In Kuwait on December 8, Spc. Thomas Wilson, a soldier from the 278th Brigade Combat Team, asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a meeting with 2,300 troops why his unit did not have sufficient armored vehicles to protect them in Iraq. He said his troops were scavenging armor from "landfills" to bulk up protection on their cars.
Rumsfeld responded in part that "you go to war with the army you have, not with the army you would want", touching off fresh debate as to whether the Pentagon was adequately prepared for the war and occupation before launching the invasion.
The need for armored vehicles did not become clear until August 2003 when insurgents began using roadside bombs. They were effective and began proliferating around the country. The problem is acute: one marine battalion in Ramadi, Iraq, encountered more than 400 of them on one 5-kilometer (3-mile) stretch of road in less than six months.
Rumsfeld's comments drew the ire of top Democrats on Capitol Hill. "I think the answer was dismissive not responsive," said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed in an interview on MSNBC. Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy labeled it "cruel and callous". Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut called it "unacceptable".
According to Whitcomb, however, no combat units drive into Iraq without properly armored vehicles, which are necessary to protect them from improvised roadside bombs that have become the deadly calling card of Iraq's insurgency.
"I've got enough metal, I've got enough folks and I've got enough time to meet our schedule that ensures that no combat unit in a wheeled vehicle goes into Iraq now that is not in an armored vehicle," he said. "Our goal in what we're working toward is that no wheeled vehicle that leaves Kuwait going into Iraq is driven by a soldier that does not have some level of armor protection on it."
It was unclear from his comments whether that is the current state of protection or a planned future state of protection from troops.
Also on December 9, a journalists' website, Poynter.org, published an e-mail from a reporter embedded with the 278th Brigade Combat Team. The reporter, Edward Lee Pitts, said he planted the question about the lack of armor with the soldier because reporters were not allowed to ask questions of their own.
Pitts wrote in the e-mail that he "worked on" the questions with soldiers prior to the troop talk and then made sure the soldier in charge of the microphone for questions knew where "his" soldiers were.
The Pentagon responded that evening saying it would be "unfortunate to discover that anyone might have interfered" with the troops opportunity to ask questions of the defense secretary "whatever the intention".
"The secretary provides ample opportunity for interaction with the press. It is better that others not infringe on the troops' opportunity to interact with superiors in the chain of command," stated Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita.