Congratulations to the soldiers...

[Nick Douglas]

...who asked Secretary Rumsfeld those tough questions on his trip to the Middle East. They were firm without being disrespectful. It's pretty astonishing that this has to be said, but that is supposed to be the job of the media and those questions have gone, for the most part, unasked and unanswered. Culpability probably lies with both an administration that gives a minimal number of press conferences and an increasingly large contingent of the conservative media that see themselves as soldiers for the cause rather than journalists looking to unearth important stories.

Whatever the background before those questions, in my experience it takes quite a bit of courage to speak out pointedly in such an open forum, and those soldiers should be commended for doing so. I hope people in the media (on both sides) put aside their ideological views in the future the same way many of those soldiers appeared to.

 

[djv]

They deserve a good plan and the best equipment we have for all. Not just half. We are now over 1000 dead and 10000 wounded. Almost Half those wounded are missing arms or legs or both. Hard to believe but those are numbers given out yesterday.
Much of this is from poor equipment.

 

[SixFive]

when you're busy covering the Abu Ghraib story and the Bush service records, you don't have time to ask questions such as this. Damned conservative media!

I think Rummy has been hammered plenty in the media, and frankly, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if he were gone. I'm sure this story will take on a life of it's own. Buckle up.

PS This belongs in the politics forum.

 

[dr. freeze]

RUMSFELD SET UP; REPORTER PLANTED QUESTIONS WITH SOLIDER
Thu Dec 09 2004 11:49:38 ET

Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!

When reached Thursday morning, various Chattanooga Times Free Press staffers offered 'no comment' on the development.

From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, MILITARY AFFAIRS
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM
To: Staffers

Subject: RE: Way to go

I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.

So during the Q&A session, one of my guys was the second person called on. When he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question. Then Rumsfeld answered something about it being "not a lack of desire or money but a logistics/physics problem." He said he recently saw about 8 of the special up-armored Humvees guarding Washington, DC, and he promised that they would no longer be used for that and that he would send them over here. Then he asked a three star general standing behind him, the commander of all ground forces here, to also answer the question. The general said it was a problem he is working on.

The great part was that after the event was over the throng of national media following Rumsfeld- The New York Times, AP, all the major networks -- swarmed to the two soldiers I brought from the unit I am embedded with. Out of the 1,000 or so troops at the event there were only a handful of guys from my unit b/c the rest were too busy prepping for our trip north. The national media asked if they were the guys with the armor problem and then stuck cameras in their faces. The NY Times reporter asked me to email him the stories I had already done on it, but I said he could search for them himself on the Internet and he better not steal any of my lines. I have been trying to get this story out for weeks- as soon as I foud out I would be on an unarmored truck- and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.

The press officer in charge of my regiment, the 278th, came up to me afterwords and asked if my story would be positive. I replied that I would write the truth. Then I pointed at the horde of national media pointing cameras and mics at the 278th guys and said he had bigger problems on his hands than the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This is what this job is all about - people need to know. The solider who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad. From what I understand this is all over the news back home.

Thanks,

Lee

EDWARD LEE PITTS FILED STORY ABOUT THE TROOPS BEFORE THE POW-WOW WITH RUMSFELD

Developing...

 

[yyz]

Drudge has a whole spiel on this crap.

 

[Nosigar]

It shouldn't have to come to that. Soldiers shoudl have waht they need without having to ask for it. Then again, what is the value of a life... and how much are WE willing to pay. What would we get rid of or where would we cut back?

This could be a mess. I don't think that a news conference is adequate forum for a soldier to question the chief. I guess it would have been fine if a reporter asked the question.

 

[IntenseOperator]

Congratulations to the soldiers that put themselves in harms way every day so the Iraqi version of Nick is allowed to now exists in a country were he would have previously been tortured to death for his socialist comments. :clap: :clap:

 

[dr. freeze]

It shouldn't have to come to that. Soldiers shoudl have waht they need without having to ask for it. Then again, what is the value of a life... and how much are WE willing to pay. What would we get rid of or where would we cut back?

This could be a mess. I don't think that a news conference is adequate forum for a soldier to question the chief. I guess it would have been fine if a reporter asked the question.

essentially, it WAS the repporter who asked the question.....does the mainstream/liberal media tell you that?

heck no....

very dishonest and troubling

 

[AR182]

i don't read the newspapers anymore because of what i see as bias reporting......so don't know if newspapers are reporting the accuracy of this story or not...........

but msnbc has been reporting today that the question was essentially by the reporter......which btw i don't see any problem with that.........

the thing that is troubling to me is that the war was started on the u.s. terms & dates........the necessary equipment should have been ready by the time the war started.......

 

[Nick Douglas]

Last I checked this was a news story, not a political story. The only reason I said, "conservative media," is that the only one-on-one interview given by Rumsfeld recently was with a conservative media outlet, and they chose to cover other topics.

Even if the soldier was coached, we all saw the reaction of the other soldiers. They were clearly in agreement with the general spirit of the questions, whether they were fed by a reporter or not. Remember that Drudge is a conservative media outlet, so you are going to get a slant in what he decides to post links to.

As usual, IntenseOperator has no idea what he is talking about. Nobody who makes comments on an innocuous gambling message board is going to get tortured or killed in any country in the world. You have been duped by the media. My advice is to keep your mouth shut, because you appear to be incapable of educating yourself enough to make intelligent comments.

 

[IntenseOperator]

As usual, IntenseOperator has no idea what he is talking about. Nobody who makes comments on an innocuous gambling message board is going to get tortured or killed in any country in the world. You have been duped by the media. My advice is to keep your mouth shut, because you appear to be incapable of educating yourself enough to make intelligent comments.

You obviously missed what I had to say. Don't think what I said or meant was all that hard to decipher. Guess you educated types :142lmao: have to be spoon fed.

You and your "educatedness" can go jump in the ocean. If you wait long enough, just stay in Cali and fortunately the whole state will slide in anyways.

BTW
I thought this forum sucked?

Please don't suffer us uneducated folk in this worthless forum run by someone who's operation you don't like. :sadwave:

 

[davidjg47]

What a crock of shit. A reporter getting a reservist to ask the question. The press will do anything to make Bush and the war look bad. All reporters should be banned from the war zone and the reservist who asked the question should be court marshaled. I don't like the war, but since we are there we should do WHATEVER it takes to end this as soon as possible. Our solders are more well equipped that ANY Army in the WORLD. The press just wants to make the Bush administration look bad.

 

[Nosigar]

essentially, it WAS the repporter who asked the question.....does the mainstream/liberal media tell you that?

heck no....

very dishonest and troubling

Didn't know the reporter asked the question. I thought the soldier had gotten up and personally asked Rummy the question. We will have a problem when soldiers start questioning "In Public" the reasons for certain policies from their superiors. But there should be a private way to address the situation without disrespecting the chain of command.

 

[IntenseOperator]

Nobody who makes comments on an innocuous gambling message board is going to get tortured or killed in any country in the world. QUOTE]

:idea:

Don't think anyone is holding you back from posting a few plays a week stud :violin:

 

[smurphy]

...the reservist who asked the question should be court marshaled.

What exactly would the charges be?

 

[pd1]

What a crock of shit. A reporter getting a reservist to ask the question. The press will do anything to make Bush and the war look bad. All reporters should be banned from the war zone and the reservist who asked the question should be court marshaled. I don't like the war, but since we are there we should do WHATEVER it takes to end this as soon as possible. Our solders are more well equipped that
ANY army in the world

You have got to be the dumbist fuk on this planet.

"The press will do anything to make Bush and the war look bad"

Like he doesn't deserve it.

"All reporters should be banned ."

Hell yeah, I would much rather hear it from the governments. WE ARE WINNING THIS WAR, WE ARE KICKING THEIR ASS ALL THE WAY BACK TO BAGDAD. WE HAD A COUPLE OF GUYS SLIP IN THE SHOWER AND DIE.BUT EVERYTING WILL BE OK.

The reservist who asked the question should be court marshalled"

I'm sure he was paid extremely well for his question. Jesus Christ, didn't you see the response he got from the crowd. Looked to me like 95% of the people there wished they would have asked the question.

" Our solders are more well equipped that ANY Army in the WORLD"

I agree, but that still doesn't mean they are equiped as well as they could be.

"

 

[Nick Douglas]

I post every play I make and a relative indication of the stakes provided the game is at least five minutes away from start time. I don't post the real stakes because they are too large for the majority of gamblers to play responsibly. You could probably count only about a dozen other gamblers here who post in a similarly honest fashion.

In my opinion a large percentage of the media does want to make both Bush and the war look bad. He doesn't help matters by seemingly avoiding the press that isn't friendly to him whenever possible. Personally, even though I didn't vote for Bush I think he's a decent president. He understand healthcare, he understands the realities of our border with Mexico and he truly does what he believes will keep Americans safe. I disagree with what he believes will keep Americans safe, but I don't view him as being as reckless as most liberals do.

This thread was meant to be negative towards the media (both sides) not the war or the Administration. Specifically, it was meant to be negative towards Bill O'Reilly. I DVR every one of his shows and believe he is the best cable news host around, but he really went soft in my opinion when he failed to confront the Secretary about the problems in planning the war during a one-on-one interview.

 

[StevieD]

Leave it to the Murdoch Media to make the question the story and not the answer. In the 1940's we built entire battleships quicker than Bush and Rummy can get an armour plate.

 

[djv]

Imus in the morning has a open invite to Rummy to come on his show. He never shows up. As for most important part of this is we invaded. Maybe we should have picked a time when we were ready. I don't give a rats ass who asked who what. But I saw enough poor planning in Nam we better learn some day. These guys like Rummyhead let there big heads get in the way. After all none of his kids are over there dieing. We see to day the Mfg of the better hummer with right protection can up production another 20%. They told Pentagon this a year ago. there waiting for the orders to do so. But know one told them it was a go. I have a fealing the Pentagon will call today. Of course a year late.
Noone seems to be in charge. Well when photo opps come along then they show up.

 

[dr. freeze]

in the 1940's we had a people who were self-reliant, hard-working, and sacrificial

today we have a citizenry full of victims, government-dependent, and lazy

the whole nation was behind and supportive of the war-effort back then....today we have much bleaker picture