Rumsfeld Tours Iraq, Celebrates Successe s

“nah, I used the money for Oxycontin and sending them to Rush. I want to see if I can get the loudmouth bastard hooked again! :)”

“dang SS, I thought you could speak for yourself...you dissapoint me”

“Staged? And not word one in there about the support the other soldiers gave with their reactions? The only thing staged around here is your predictable lay-downs for this administration, Stovie.”

“LOL, maybe those cut-n-pastes aren't intended to speak for me. Y'all will put plenty enought words in my mouth! LOL

I'm just doing the exact same thing the VileMan does, except from the other side of the political landscape. None of you libs have any problems with what he does. LOL
last edited: 12/10/04 1:04:57 PM”

“Is that the best you can do, Stove? Lay it all on Violin?”

“SS, very rarely do I copy and paste. I say what I think and it can go either way. Remember I am the one who thought all of the people running for President were Bozo's”

“All you libs are acting so foolish, arguing with an idiot.”

“"Gawd please make them stop fighting!"

”

“LOL, you libs ALWAYS drop down to namecalling and turd throwing!
Why argue with internet personages with the intellect to think this is snappy comeupance? LOL”

“I've seen this behavior here before on TT.

Someone gets cornered in an argument/ discussion/ whatever and instead of having the nuts to admit that they're wrong or their boy (Rummy, Bush, Easter Bunny, ya momma, etc.) made a mistake you lash out, call people libs or some such nonsense.

Or... aw shucks fellas, I waz juz trollin, tryin to incite you gullible pinko, commie, girlie men libs....us gentlemenly, manly conservative red state types just love to tease you boys. We would never complain to old Rummy even if he was f_ckin us up our a$$ because we're GOD fearin good ole boys and we can take it by GOD.

Hmmmm!? It was a (red state) soldier and a red state newspaper reporter and the troops went wild when that brave guy asked the question.

Give it up.”

“Maybe Halliburton can pony up the dough for some more armored vehicles, flack jackets, etc. Maybe some of you Bush lovers/defenders can help out too....donate to the cause. I'll match your contribution. Two of my high school students are in Fallujah and would love the help I'm sure.”

“A kid who was in our local Junior ROTC program was killed in his humvee when a roadside bomb blew up. The kid had high hopes for a career in politics and could have avoided this war, but he thought he should do his part. He was a bright kid, and he loved to make people laugh and pull their chains. He'd be alive today if his humvee had been properly armored. He was doing his part to fight Bush's war. It sticks in my craw.”

“I have also heard that civilians are spending their own money on their spouses to properly equip them in Iraq. If this is true, it's just shameful.”

“Still waiting for words of wisdom from the red state patriots.....care to make a donation boys?

I'm mailing a Christmas card today to my students in Iraq today. Shall I pass on your greetings and words of support?”

“IMO* the bottom line here was/is that the question was valid. It reflects the reality that troops face everyday in Iraq. It doesn't matter whether the soldier thought it up or not. From the applause it got the question was certainly on the minds of alot of GIs there that day. And it tells us why the usually "unflappable" Rumsfeld became flustered. No hard questions were expected. Carefully screened GIs don't embarrass the Secretary of Defense. The event was supposed to be a staged photo op for Bush's Useful Idiots (BUIs) back on the homefront.
>
Since becoming the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfed has pushed for a lighter, more mobile Army. It supposedly fits in with his idea of how wars will be fought in the future. That's why he wants fewer Abrams tanks and more of the lightly armored Stryker vehicles he has been pushing so hard for.
>
Well the future is now. And sadly for the GIs in the field Rumsfeld's model doesn't fit. It's time for this loser to go. And with him Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Elliot Abrams, Richard Bolton, and all the other NeoCons who conned us into this proxy war for Israel.

*Sol Rule Disclaimer
This post is the opinion of solitary hiker and should not be misconstrued as a statement fact. Likewise it does not reflect the official views of TT BUIs. It may or may not reflect the opinions of matt, the webmaster. You will have to ask him.
last edited: 12/11/04 9:23:17 AM”

“The most ironic aspect of this story is that it took place in Kuwait. Rumsfeld was, apparently, supposed to go into Iraq on this trip. But it was too dangerous for him to travel there.

Let me see. On Thanksgiving 2003, it was safe enough for President Bush to travel to Iraq. Now, it's not safe enough for the Secretary of Defense.

What are we accomplishing in Iraq?”

“here is a story about another soldier who asked Rumsfeld about armour on the vehicles last yr. Ironic that both soldiers are from Tenn.
http://www.thetennessean.com/local/archives/04/12/62712488.shtml?Element_ID=62712488”

“I don't think Stove is trying to have other's speak for him - I think he is offering evidence.

However, I think people are trying to attack the messenger to distract from the real issue.

My Observations:

1) The troops cheered the question. Obviously it was on people's minds.

2) The reporter was embedded with troops - it seems he was trying to raise a question that he saw as important based on what he had seen and heard.

3) No one is accusing the soldier who asked the question of lying, or of not genuinely caring about the problem. They seem to be trying to imply it, but so far - it seems the guy was bothered by this and the reporter found a forum for him and encouraged him to ask a question that was already bothering him.

4) The post articly calls Rumsfeld candid. However, it is clear he was not. He made it sound like everyone was working at top speed possible to crank out enought armored vehicles and manufacturers just couldn't crank them out fast enough. Now we learn that at least on manufacturer has been waited for the go-ahead to crank out 100/month more.”

“WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A comment Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made during a Christmas Eve address to U.S. troops in Baghdad has sparked new conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

In the speech, Rumsfeld made a passing reference to United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to stop al Qaeda hijackers.

But in his remarks, Rumsfeld referred to the "the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania."

A Pentagon spokesman insisted that Rumsfeld simply misspoke, but Internet conspiracy theorists seized on the reference to the plane having been shot down.

"Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy" asked a posting on the Web site WorldNetDaily.com.

Some people remain skeptical of U.S. government statements that, despite a presidential authorization, no planes were shot down September 11, and rumors still circulate that a U.S. military plane shot the airliner down over Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

A Pentagon spokesman insists Rumsfeld has not changed his opinion that the plane crashed as the result of an onboard struggle between passengers and terrorists.

The independent panel charged with investigating the terrorist attacks concluded that the hijackers intentionally crashed Flight 93, apparently because they feared the passengers would overwhelm them.”

“
this is a very telling picture so I will re-post it”

“Yup. That pretty much is as close to an admission as you're going to get from this administration.”

“looks like Rummy aint the only one making Freudian slips.

stop Nigal....you'll go blind or become a Democrat.”

“Reading the transcript on CNN does give the impression that he may have mistakenly spoken the truth for a change.


And I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten -- indeed the word "terrorized" is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be.”

“Speaking of democrats and jackoffs...”

“Nigal, that was a bit over the line.
The B F D above.”

“This is pretty silly, IMHO, if Rummy was telling the truth inadvertantly, then he was saying that the anti-Americaqn Terrorists shot the plane down,not that the US did it.”

“Well… I’ll allow that you understand the brain better than I do ped, but you don’t need to take his words literally. Using the phrase “shot down the plane over Pennsylvania” is very different than saying “crashing the plane”. It could reveal secret knowledge, or it could have been a brain fart.

The Bergen Record ran a story a few days after 9-11 about eyewitnesses who saw a second plane at the crash. http://www.flight93crash.com/second-plane-at-flight93-crash-site.htm”

“I wish matt would fix the spelling in the thread title to the proper "Runsfailed".”

“errr... Make that "Rumsfailed".”

““Nigal, that was a bit over the line.
The B F D above.”


Where's this line everyone keeps talking about? LOL!”

“Common decency. That is the line. The liberals are on the other side of it and you stepped across.”

“Nigal the liberal? Excuse me, I have something I need to do...

”

“Yeah, Bacpac. You're a decent guy! never a bad word for anyone.


OMG, do you believe this sh_t?”

“It a plausible theory, but it doesn't really matter anyway. If the passengers hadn't stormed the cockpit and brought it down, what were they supposed to do, let it crash into the Capitol?”

“I think it would have been a huge mistake not to shoot it down.”

“Say it aint so ......masturbating, conservative couch potato hangs himself in disgrace.

I'm going to miss that dude.”

“Swing and a miss Jo. You're slippin' dude. :P”

“Insurgents assassinated the highest-ranking Iraqi official in eight months Tuesday, gunning down the governor of Baghdad province and six of his bodyguards. Story below

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143242,00.html”

“The Marines are about to have a father and son both fighting in Iraq.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143250,00.html”

“Shouldn't this be on the Another Responsable NRA Member thread?”

“if you want to move it go ahead =)”

“Iraq battling more than 200,000 insurgents: intelligence chief

BAGHDAD, Jan 3 (AFP) - Iraq's insurgency counts more than 200,000 active fighters and sympathisers, the country's national intelligence chief told AFP, in the bleakest assessment to date of the armed revolt waged by Sunni Muslims.

"I think the resistance is bigger than the US military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people," Iraqi intelligence service director General Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani said in an interview ahead of the January 30 elections.

Shahwani said the number includes at least 40,000 hardcore fighters but rises to more than 200,000 members counting part-time fighters and volunteers who provide rebels everything from intelligence and logistics to shelter.

The numbers far exceed any figure presented by the US military in Iraq, which has struggled to get a handle on the size of the resistance since toppling Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.
<snip>”

“Army Seeks Longer Tours for Reservists

Stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army is considering a National Guard and Reserve policy shift that could result in part-timers being called to active duty multiple times for up to two years each time, a senior Army official said.

The official, who discussed the matter with a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity because the matter has not been fully settled inside the Pentagon, said Thursday the Army probably will ask Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in the next several months to change the policy.

The official also said it appeared likely that the Army will ask Congress to permanently increase the statutory size of the Army by 30,000 soldiers, to 512,000. He said that decision would be made next year.

The Army has the authority to add 30,000 soldiers, but arranged for it to be only a temporary boost because it did not want a long-term commitment to the cost of a larger force. But now it appears that the Army has no choice but to accept a permanent increase, the official said.

The Army estimates that a permanent increase of 30,000 soldiers will cost it about $3 billion a year.

One reason that the National Guard and Reserve have been used so heavily over the past three years is that the active-duty Army is too small to meet the demands of war — particularly in Iraq (search), where troop levels have far exceeded original predictions — while also maintaining a presence in traditional areas of influence such as Europe and the Korean peninsula.


The Army now has about 660,000 troops on active duty, of which about 160,000 are members of the Guard and Reserve.

The Army wants them to be eligible for an unlimited number of call-ups, so long as no single mobilization lasts more than 24 months, the official said.

Under current policy set by Rumsfeld, a Guard or Reserve member is not to serve on active duty for more than 24 total months. Thus, for example, if a Guard or Reserve member was mobilized for six months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and later for nine months in Afghanistan, then that person is off limits for duty in Iraq because a yearlong tour there would exceed the 24-month limit. A standard tour in Iraq, for both active-duty and reserves, is 12 months.

If the limit were set at 24 consecutive months, with some break between tours, then in theory a Guard or Reserve member could be mobilized for multiple 12- or 24-month tours in Iraq or elsewhere.

That is the kind of flexibility the Army has decided it needs in order to sustain the forces needed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the official said. He stressed that the Army would make only sparing use of the authority to call up soldiers for longer tours because it would not want to alienate soldiers.

The National Guard, with about 350,000 members, and the 200,000-strong Reserve already are seeing signs of a slide in recruiting and retaining soldiers. Some may question whether a policy change that results in longer mobilizations could further erode the Guard and Reserve\'s ability to attract new soldiers and keep the ones it has.

The Guard in particular has been used so much in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Army now has deployed — or put on notice of plans to mobilize in 2005 — all 15 of its main combat brigades.



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143605,00.html”

“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144663,00.html

Gunmen Assassinate Three Candidates in Iraq
Tuesday, January 18, 2005


BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen shot and killed three candidates running in Iraq\'s Jan. 30 elections, officials said Tuesday, as a bomb attack killed two people outside the offices of a leading Shiite political party.

With insurgents trying to ruin the election, officials announced that Iraq will seal its borders, extend a curfew and restrict movement to protect voters during the balloting. President Bush spoke Tuesday morning with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the latest in a series of conversations between the two leaders on Iraq's efforts to ensure maximum participation in the election.

Two of the slain candidates belonged to Allawi's political coalition, the Iraqi National Accord, a member of the group said.

Alaa Hamid, who was running for the 275-member National Assembly, was shot dead Monday in the southern port city of Basra in front of his family, the official said on condition of anonymity. Hamid was also the deputy chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee in Basra.

Riad Radi, who was running in the local race for Basra's provincial council on a list supported by Allawi's INC, was killed Sunday when masked gunmen fired on his car as he was driving with his family, the official said.


Basra, a predominantly Shiite Muslim city, has been relatively calm in recent weeks, though insurgents fired four mortar rounds Sunday at schools slated to serve as polling centers.

In Baghdad on Monday, masked gunmen shot dead another candidate, Shaker Jabbar Sahla, a Shiite Muslim who was running in the National Assembly election for the Constitutional Monarchy Movement. The party is headed by Sharif Ali bin Hussein, a cousin of Iraq's last king.

Sunni Muslim militants, who make up the bulk of Iraq's insurgency, are increasingly honing in on Shiites in their effort to ruin the election that is widely expected to propel their religious rivals to a position of dominance. Many Sunnis argue that security is precarious and the election should not take place under foreign occupation.

Tuesday's car bombing in Baghdad gouged a crater in the pavement, left several vehicles in flames and spread shredded debris on the street outside the offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a main contender in the election. The Shiite party, known as SCIRI, has close ties to Iran and is strongly opposed by Sunni Muslim militants.

The assailant told guards at a checkpoint leading to the party's office that he was part of SCIRI's security staff, and he detonated his bomb-laden car at the guard post when he was not allowed to enter.

Iraqi police officials reported the bomber and two others were dead and nine people were injured, including three police.

"SCIRI will not be frightened by such an act," party spokesman Ridha Jawad said. "SCIRI will continue the march toward building Iraq, establishing justice and holding the elections."

The Independent Electoral Commission announced that the country's international borders would be closed from Jan. 29 until Jan. 31, except for Muslim pilgrims returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Iraqis also will be barred from traveling between provinces and a nighttime curfew will be imposed during the same period, according to a statement from the commission's Farid Ayar.

Such measures had been expected because of the grave security threat. U.S. and Iraqi authorities are hoping to encourage a substantial turnout but fear that if most Sunnis stay away from the polls, the legitimacy of the new government will be in doubt.

Iraq's interior minister warned that if the country's Sunni Arab minority bows to rebel threats and stays away from the polls, the nation could descend into civil war.

Falah Hassan al-Naqib, a Sunni, told reporters he expects Sunni insurgents to escalate attacks before the election, especially in the Baghdad area.

"If any group does not participate in the elections, it will constitute treason," al-Naqib said, adding that "boycotting the elections will not produce a National Assembly that represents the Iraqi people" but will cause "a civil war that will divide the country."

Allawi said he will boost the country\'s armed forces with 70,000 more troops in an effort to take over more security tasks from U.S.-led forces. He said the forces would be "equipped with the most advanced weapons."

Meanwhile, a Catholic archbishop kidnapped by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul was released Tuesday, a day after his abduction. The Vatican had called his abduction a "terrorist act."

A video surfaced Tuesday showing eight Chinese construction workers held hostage by gunmen claiming the men are employed by a company working with U.S. troops, in the latest abduction of foreigners in Iraq. China's Foreign Ministry said it was "taking all measures to rescue the hostages," the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The men from China's southern Fujian province went missing last week while traveling to Jordan, Xinhua said.

Elsewhere, a third American died in fighting in Iraq's troubled Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the military said Tuesday. Two others assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force also were killed in action there Monday.

The military gave no other details and it was unclear whether the three troops were killed in a suicide car bombing in the western city of Ramadi that U.S. officials said resulted in American casualties.”

“Army late with orders for armored Humvees

Mon Mar 28, 7:21 AM ET Top Stories - USATODAY.com

By Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY

In June 2003, the U.S. Army realized that it didn't have enough armored Humvees in Iraq to protect soldiers from a growing number of attacks by insurgents. By Friday, officials expect to correct that problem by having almost 22,000 armored Humvees in Iraq - up from 235 when the war began.


Why did it take the government almost two years to remedy a deficiency that the Army acknowledges was costing soldiers' lives?

An examination of Army records, correspondence with members of Congress and Pentagon documents shows that the military repeatedly underestimated the need for more armored Humvees. Even after recognizing its miscalculations, the Army was slow to order more armored Humvees, and then transported them to Iraq from its existing worldwide supply in fits and starts. Officials also failed to take full advantage of a defense contracting firm that says it could have increased production to meet the Army's needs.

The Defense Department had assumed that armored Humvees wouldn't be needed once the invasion of Iraq was over. Original plans called for the Pentagon to pull back most tanks and other armored vehicles to reduce the U.S. military profile as soon as Baghdad fell, because strategists had projected that Iraq would quickly become peaceful. But violent attacks by insurgents, never anticipated by the Pentagon, meant that troops traveling in unarmored Humvees faced grave risks.

The Pentagon says it does not keep figures on how many soldiers have died or suffered serious wounds in unarmored Humvees. But at least 275 troops were killed in Humvees in 2003 and 2004 - one of every four American troops killed by hostile action during that period - according to news accounts, Pentagon records and figures compiled by the staff of the members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees.

It could not be determined whether those troops were in unarmored or armored Humvees, boxy-looking trucks that replaced the Jeep as the military's all-purpose utility vehicle. Armored Humvees, however, are reinforced to protect against the roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons used by insurgents. In the summer of 2003, most Humvees had little armor, which made them much more vulnerable to attacks than the heavier Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks.

The Pentagon "thought we would be pelted with rose petals and not RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," says Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee. "I don't blame them for getting it wrong. I blame them for not understanding and adjusting fast enough, and the result is there has been a tremendous casualty list."

Better chance of survival Armoring a Humvee is no guarantee of invincibility.

Insurgent bombs have destroyed heavily armored Humvees and even crippled 60-ton tanks. But military personnel - from troops in the field to Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - say that soldiers have a better chance of surviving attacks in an armored vehicle.

Critics say the Pentagon was not quick enough to see the need, and then reacted too slowly.

"There was a reluctance on the part of the Pentagon to take it seriously and get as many of these vehicles as quickly as possible," Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, says. "It was almost as if they were in a defensive posture, that to make any changes or to acknowledge any shortcomings would somehow be an acknowledgment that the planning had not been perfect."

In April 2004, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, criticized the Army's efforts to get more armored vehicles or armor kits to Iraq, telling Army officials they were afflicted by a "case of the slows."

Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, the Army's deputy for acquisition and systems management, disputes that charge. "To say that the Army has been unresponsive and been slow to respond is an inaccurate statement," Sorenson says. "Everybody can be the Monday morning quarterback. ... We did not think there was a major insurgency. Commanders in the theater were not asking for the vehicles. Who is to blame? I have no idea."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has suggested the lack of armored Humvees was simply beyond the Pentagon's control.

When Tennessee Army National Guard Spc. Thomas Wilson asked during a public session with Rumsfeld in Kuwait last December why the Army didn't have enough reinforced Humvees, Rumsfeld replied, "You go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

By the time Rumsfeld said that, the Army had been working for almost a year and a half to gradually increase the number of armored Humvees in Iraq. But Rumsfeld's encounter with Wilson appears to have spurred the Pentagon: Two days later, on Dec. 10, the Army asked the sole company producing factory-armored Humvees to boost its production by more than 20%.
Rumsfeld declined to comment for this story.

An unexpected weapon

The insurgents' weapon of choice for attacking Humvees is the IED, or "improvised explosive device," a homemade bomb cobbled from whatever explosives are on hand - frequently, large artillery shells. The Army acknowledges that the power and proliferation of the bombs came as a surprise. "The extent and the violence of the IED, the sophistication of the IED, was not anticipated," Sorenson says.

Each time the Army thought it had a fix on how many reinforced Humvees and armor kits it would need in Iraq, Sorenson says, another surge of attacks pushed the number higher.

But official records and correspondence raise questions about whether the Army acted aggressively enough:

• In August 2003, the Army officially increased the number of reinforced Humvees it said it needed for Iraq. Military officials in Iraq increased the requirement for factory-built armored Humvees twice that month, first to 1,233 and then to 1,407 in late August, according to a February 2004 Pentagon "information paper" and other documents.

Sorenson says the initial attacks on unarmored Humvees could have been "random" events. When attacks multiplied in the summer of 2003, senior officials asked field commanders whether they needed more armored vehicles, and the commanders at first "said they did not want them,"Sorenson says.

• In October 2003, the Army began moving reinforced Humvees to Iraq from U.S. bases around the world, where it had more than 3,000 of the armored vehicles. In response to written questions, the Army said it took time to locate the strengthened Humvees elsewhere in the world, determine what their missions were, and make decisions about whether they could be shipped to Iraq.

"Before such vehicles could be moved, the units had to be given other vehicles to perform their missions," the Army wrote. "Shipping the vehicles after they were identified also took a certain length of time, even with everyone's best efforts."

The Army says maintenance and transit alone took about two months. Even so, the process that began in October 2003 was not complete until March 2004.

• In November 2003, the Army officially declared a need for more add-on armor kits to modify Humvees already in Iraq. The armor plates could be bolted or welded onto existing vehicles, adding protection while forces waited for the delivery of more factory-built armored Humvees.

The Army tripled the number of factories from which it was buying the kits, from seven to 21, and the first shipments of kits began arriving the next month.

• By February 2004, the Army knew that Armor Holdings, the lone U.S. company that built reinforced Humvees, could increase production to at least 450 a month, according to a memo prepared for Strickland after a congressional briefing by a Pentagon official.

But for months, the Army did not take advantage of that production capacity. Rather than asking the company to increase monthly production to 450 as soon as possible, the Army stuck to the contract that did not call for that level of production until November 2004.

Only after Spc. Wilson questioned Rumsfeld in Kuwait last December did the Army redo the contract to push monthly production to 550. Sorenson says the Army had trouble paying for increased Humvee production, and in the congressional briefing, a Pentagon official cited "funding problems" for not pressing for more production sooner, according to the memo prepared for Strickland.

Members of Congress, including Strickland, say that's not a valid excuse. Had the Army asked, Strickland says, Congress would have provided the money.

"If at any time the Pentagon had said to the Congress, to any of us, 'We need more money for protective equipment for our troops,' they would have gotten it that day, I could guarantee you that," Strickland says.

Able to make more

The Army first asked Armor Holdings officials in the fall of 2003 whether it would be possible to increase production of the armored Humvees, according to Robert Mecredy, president of the company's aerospace and defense group. A subsidiary, O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt of Fairfield, Ohio, is the sole U.S. company building specially armored Humvees.

"We said, 'Yes, it would take up to six months, depending on steel, the hiring of people' " and other items, Mecredy says. "From the fall of 2003 we said, 'Yes, we can ramp it up.' "

Mecredy says the company had, and continues to have, a good working relationship with "my premier customer, the Army." But he says when no request to increase production was made, he invited Les Brownlee, then the acting secretary of the Army, to the Ohio plant where armored Humvees were made to push the issue in February 2004.

During his tour of the plant, Brownlee promised workers a "plan for getting these vehicles into the hands of our troops just as fast as we can." But the Army did not change its contract to increase Humvee production, according to Mecredy and Strickland. Mecredy says the Army never said why.

Members of Congress also say the Pentagon didn't move quickly to ramp up production. "People in the Pentagon were aware these vehicles could be produced in larger numbers," says Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record), D-Ind., but "they have consistently underestimated the need for this kind of protection for our troops. ... Unfortunately, soldiers have been killed because of that."

House Armed Services Chairman Hunter adds that Congress must "continue to push to provide (the troops) the best equipment and gear to keep them safe so they can get the job done."

Sorenson insists the Army quickly rewrote contracts to build more armored Humvees. But even efforts to add bolt-on armor to existing vehicles encountered delays. Testing was needed to ensure that the extra 2 tons of armor didn't make the vehicles unwieldy and dangerous, Sorenson says. In fact, the Army is looking at a recent spate of Humvee rollover accidents to see whether bolt-on armor was a factor.

"When division commanders say they don't want the equipment, ... what are you going to (do)?" Sorenson says. Had he been the father of someone killed in an unarmored Humvee, he says, "I would be as outraged as anyone. I completely understand that, and there is really nothing I can say to make them feel better."

The outcry over the lack of armored Humvees is loudest among troops' families. When soldiers or Marines die in inadequately armored vehicles, friends and relatives ask why it's taking so long to get better equipment to Iraq.

Army Pfc. John Hart and 1st Lt. David Bernstein of Phoenixville, Pa., were killed in their unarmored Humvee on Oct. 18, 2003, in Taza, Iraq, when enemy forces ambushed their patrol using rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. According to Hart's father, they were killed by the small-arms fire that penetrated the Humvee.

"My son called me the week before he was killed," says Brian Hart of Bedford, Mass. "He said they were getting shot at all the time. They were in unarmored Humvees and were out there exposed to fire. He was concerned they were going to get hit. He was literally whispering this into the phone to me. He was right. That's how he died”