Rumsfeld spun

It has been interesting watching coverage of Rumsfeld's visit here To begin with, it didn't seem like that big a deal when he came, but it sure seems to be getting media coverage. Even more interesting is the coverage itself.

The media has focused on the up-armored vehicle question, and to a lesser extent the stop loss question and the second class equipment question. The controversial ones. My question, about soldier pay, has been reported, but not very widely.

Anyway, turns out that the question about up-armored Hummers was fed to the soldier by a reporter. We are concerned here about armor, of course, but not that concerned. To begin with, no vehicle that is not armored, at least to some degree, will drive north. The soft skinned ones will be shipped by contractor. Thus, not a huge concern. There appear to be an adequate number of armored vehicles to do the mission once we get to Iraq. More would be better, of course.

The cheer after the question was reported, andit did occur. I think I said "Yeah!" Yes, there was a cheer, but it was cheering a gutsy question, and was not so much a cheer like "Yeah, goddammit, what about the armor." It wasn't that big a cheer, either.

John Marshall, Talking Points Memo, mentioned the point about, essentially, we can never have enough armor. Marshall taking it that Rumsfeld was downplaying the need for armor. Having sat there, however, and not being a particular Rumsfeld fan, I took it as just a realistic statement. We can't armor everything. We've got to have some mobility and flexibility, and war is risky. Nature of the beast. Rumsfeld was right; we can't armor everything. Insufficient time and resources, no real need.

I have not seen anyone report how Rumsfeld stayed and mingled with soldiers. It was a real scrum. He was having his picture taken with soldiers, he was grinning, talking to soldiers, having a great time, spending his valuable time to just be with soldiers, no agenda, just letting them touch him and talk to him, crowd around him. "The rest of the story", as Paul Harvey would say.

Finally, I must say this gives me pause. I have poo-poohed the claims that the media is not reorting accurately from Iraq, and that the media over emphasizes the negative. Well, I'd say the media got part of this story right, but didn't cover the whole story, and gave the overall wrong impression.