December 13, 2004 - The Bush Administration and its loyal coterie of anonymous Internet commentators have trotted out their defense to the question posed by Spec. Thomas Jerry Wilson to the Secretary of Defense. It seems that there was a reporter embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee National Guard. It seems that this reporter was a disloyal traitor who actually talked with the soldiers. It seems that this reporter actually discussed what the soldiers might ask the Secretary if they got the chance and worse than that this reporter, giving aid and comfort to the enemy, actually suggested to the non-com handling the microphone that Spec. Wilson be called on. That is shocking, isn’t it? This guy from the Chattanooga is no better than those notorious traitors of WWII, Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin.

Of course that revelation that some reporter knew in advance that the soldiers wanted to ask tough questions, encouraged them to do so, and even helped them frame the question doesn’t answer the legitimate question Specialist Wilson asked. Neither does it provide an explanation to the enthusiastic round of applause that the question evoked from the troops assembled at the Secretary’s photo-op town meeting. The Secretary did not expect to face tough questions; that was clear from his response. He thought that when he excluded the press from posing questions he dodged the tough ones. He thought that the soldiers wouldn’t dare confront the Old Man in the glare of the TV cameras. He thought wrong.

Now his Pentagon is scrambling to catch up to his off the cuff answers to Specialist Wilson’s question. The Old Man gathered his thoughts and claimed that the Army was pushing for more armored Humvees. When the traitorous press discovered that the Pentagon had not ordered the increased production that the Secretary claimed it had the people back at the Pentagon quickly sent the orders to the manufacturers to ramp up production.

The explanation went out to the press and to the Internet bloggers that the Humvee was designed as an all terrain vehicle for use in secure rear areas, not as a combat vehicle. That doesn’t explain why in the 20 months since the President declared that combat in Iraq was over that our soldiers have been sent to combat in un-armored Humvees. It is cold comfort to the families of the dead and of the maimed that the Humvee is not a combat vehicle.

This episode, like the rebellion of the transportation platoon that refused a mission to deliver fuel in vulnerable and unprotected trucks, highlights the growing realization among the troops on the ground that they are short handed, ill-equipped for the conditions they face, and have been sent to fight a guerrilla war without a defined mission. Just as the Old Men did three decades ago the Old Men need someone to blame for their shortened sight and bungled war. As they did thirty years ago they blame the press for asking the questions for which they have no good answers.

And that is the news of the day.