Rumsfeld Responds to U.S. Soldier's Grilling

Dec. 9, 2004 — -- It was an unusually blunt question publicly posed by a U.S. soldier, and a day after Spc. Thomas Wilson grilled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the lack of armored vehicles in Iraq, Rumsfeld is trying to quell the firestorm over "hillbilly armor."

At Camp Buerhing in Kuwait on Wednesday, Wilson -- known as "Jerry" to family and friends -- asked Rumsfeld why the U.S. Army requires its soldiers to "dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal" to bolster armor on their vehicles.

His question was met with shouts of approval and applause from the estimated 2,300 U.S. soldiers at the "town hall" meeting at the transit camp for troops heading into Iraq.

At a news conference in India today -- his latest stop during a Middle East and south Asia trip -- Rumsfeld was once again forced to address Wilson's question. "I don't know what the facts are, but somebody certainly is going to sit down with him and find out what he knows and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know," he said.

Rumsfeld, however, maintained he was pleased to hear an ordinary soldier's complaints. "That's a good thing," he told reporters. "So, I think it's a very constructive exchange."

But the substance of the exchange -- especially Rumsfeld's response to Wilson -- was criticized by U.S. Army Reservist Paul Rieckhoff on "Good Morning America" today. Rieckhoff is the founder of Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. soldiers, and a former platoon leader in Iraq.

Responding to Rumsfeld's statement that, "you can have all of the armor in the world on a tank, and a tank can be blown up," Rieckhoff maintained that properly protected vehicles were critical in Iraq today.

"Mr. Rumsfeld really doesn't understand the reality on the ground that the troops are facing," said Rieckhoff. "All Rumsfeld keeps giving us is excuses. We don't want excuses. We want solutions."

As casualties in Iraq continue to mount, U.S. soldiers have been warning that trucks and transport vehicles that lack sufficient armor leave them vulnerable to insurgent attacks.