CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came under friendly fire Wednesday from troops who took up his invitation to ask tough questions about Iraq (news - web sites).
Hundreds of soldiers applauded a comrade who complained to Rumsfeld that U.S. troops were being forced to dig up scrap metal to protect their vehicles in Iraq because of a shortage of armored transport.
"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to armor our vehicles ... (scrap) that has already been shot up, dropped, busted, picking the best out of this scrap to put on our vehicles to take into combat?, the soldier said.
"We do not have proper armorment for our vehicles to carry us north (into Iraq)."
At Camp Buehring in Kuwait, 20 km (12 miles) south of the Iraq border, Rumsfeld faced other questions about equipment shortages and the U.S. role in Iraq after elections scheduled for Jan. 30.
He conceded that "not every vehicle has the degree of armor that it would be desirable for it to have," but said the army was hurrying to plate more vehicles.
"I think it is something like 400 a month are being done," he said. "As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time...
"I've talked a great deal about this with a team of people who have been working hard at the Pentagon (news - web sites)... if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."
The army has acknowledged problems in supplying sufficient numbers of the armored Humvee, a light vehicle which without extra armor can be especially vulnerable to the daily attacks by insurgents in Iraq using roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.
The U.S. administration has repeatedly come under fire from critics who accuse it of failing to adequately supply troops with armored vehicles and body armor.
Several U.S. soldiers face disciplinary proceedings after refusing to go out on a road convoy in Iraq in October, complaining their vehicles were not armored and in poor condition.
NATIONAL GUARD EQUIPMENT
Another soldier asked Rumsfeld what the Pentagon was doing "to address shortages and antiquated equipment that National Guard soldiers ... are going to roll into Iraq with?" The soldier was referring to allegations that regular army units have been given better equipment than reservists.
"Now settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, and it's early in the morning. I'm just gathering my thoughts here," the 72-year-old Rumsfeld told the troops.
"No way I can prove it, but I'm told that the army is breaking its neck to see that there is not a differentiation" in the quality of equipment, he added.
Another soldier asked Rumsfeld about the army's "stop-loss" policy that has prevented thousands of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites) from leaving the military when their volunteer service commitment ends.
Another asked him what the plan for U.S. forces was after Iraq's parliamentary elections, scheduled for Jan. 30.
"After the election ... you would see a reduction in the forces of the coalition countries and that's the hope, and that's the expectation, the pace of that however would be determined completely on what the facts on the ground are," Rumsfeld replied.
He pointed to Afghanistan as a success story, after holding elections and inaugurating Hamid Karzai as president this week. "It's not a quagmire, it's a democracy," he said.
Rumsfeld later flew to India for talks with Indian defense officials at the end of a trip that took him to Kabul to see Karzai sworn in Tuesday.