Re/Max quote:
Kerry was blasted for not wanting to protect soldiers enough (body armour) in his campaign run.
Now we're hearing about Humvee's not having enough armour, and soldiers asking Rummy why (I liked his horrible response too ).
Can't...restrain myself...any...longer...BAC quote:
From the sounds of it, Rumsfeld is the one who doesn't care about the troops. And from the sounds of the reaction at the press conference, a lot of the soldiers in the field tend to agree.
Did you "read" the Rumsfeld Q&A session, or did you watch video of it? I'm guessing you just read it, because if you had watched video of it, his answers were quite acceptable.
Some indisputable facts:
1. The Army--and Air Force and Marine Corps--own a lot of HMMWVs.
2. Those HMMWVs were bought long before there was any thought to urban combat on a wide scale.
3. The procurement process in the military is a long one--don't blame us, blame Congress for the Programming, Procurement and Budgetary System (PPBS) confines.
4. Locally procured armor of whatever flavor is quicker to buy than ordering it through official channels.
These facts have collided in the urban combat environment of Iraq, and make for good stories about how "The President <or, alternatively, The Pentagon> isn't supporting the war effort," when in fact it's a simple matter of current warfighting needs outpacing the (admittedly) obsolete Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps doctrine under which the HMMWVs were bought.
The military has shifted procurement priorities. Case in point, this CNN article states the production of armored HMMWVs is up 3000% from August of 2003 (450 per month now, 15 per month then).
Sorry for the long post, but this is the long version of Secretary Rumsfeld's answer when he said "as you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want."