rummy:"think of the murders in every major city...why aren't they stopped?

[diamond14]

-snips from today's DOD press transcript, as rummy explains why he's not protecting the troops....notice how rummy never answers the question, and INSULTS our troops by comparing their deaths to murders/fires that occur everyday in cities....

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041222-secdef1861.html

Q: Can I do a follow-up, Mr. Secretary, on that same issue? Do you and General Myers think it's unwise or was unwise to put 400- plus servicemen and civilians and others in a huge tent the size of a football field on a base in a combat zone, a base that had been hit by mortars and RPGs? And if you do think it's unwise, are either one of you or both going to sound off to Generals Casey and Ham, or take them to the woodshed?

-----------
Q: Would you --

SEC. RUMSFELD: It seems to me --

Q: May I do a follow-up?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Just a minute. No.

Q: No follow-ups?


SEC. RUMSFELD: Let me respond -- (laughs) -- to your first one before you follow up.

If you think about it, it's a normal reaction to see something like that and say, "Why wasn't it stopped?" Or a beheading, and say, "Why didn't somebody stop the beheading?" And of course the other way to look at it is, think of the people who did the beheading. Those are the people we're up against.

Someone can say, "Well, people are coming across the border with jihadists from Syria; why aren't they stopped?" The other question is, why doesn't Syria stop the jihadists from coming across the border?

It is a -- it is something that one has to put into context. And I say that in respect for the military commanders on the ground, who have multiple tasks, are challenged constantly. I mean, think of the murders that take place in every major city in the world; one can say, "Well, why aren't they stopped?" Or the fires that take place and things that happen.

And there are terrible things and the loss of life is heartbreaking, and it's a normal human instinct. But the other way to think about it or an additional way to think about it is think about turning that country over and letting them win, those people who are doing those things. It would be a terrible loss for civilized society.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. This person...

Has a real problem with reality and taking responsibility. All symptoms of sociopathology.

[Robbien]

2. Rebels attacking their occupiers equates with shootings at our 7-Elevens?

Someone should remind Rummy that Bush says we are "at War" and that Rummy is not leading a gang of street ruffians but a uniformed army.

[diamond14]

12. that's what rummy says....and he also compares it to fires and other

stuff that happens.....

amazing...and all the newspapers and TV's interpreted rummy's statements as "compassionate"....they all failed to quote these typically cruel remarks, which are essentially: "shit happens, so shut up"........

[StephanieMarie]

3. Bush says he's a real compassionate guy, so it must be so. n/t

[TacticalPeek]

4. "Or the fires that take place and things that happen."

Shorter Asshole: "Shit happens. Shut up."

[diamond14]

7. "shit happens...shut up".....yes, that is compassion, rummy.....

notice how halliburton lowered their dead numbers to eliminate all the Iraqis killed....minus 5 today....afterall, nobody knows their names.....and some mercenaries were eliminated (their deaths are always off the books)...so now...the death toll is a LOT lower.....and ONLY 15 American Soldiers killed....yesterday, by all major newspapers, it was 22 American soldiers, 5 Iraqis, and 5 mercenaries....today...only 15 American soldiers....


the death toll manipulated, and then the story becomes a single mad-man suicider....so the OFFICIAL DOD position is: Shit happens. Shut up....

and bush* continues his cheap war...while bush* cabal makes BILLIONS in profits....and American soldiers DIE....like fires/murders and other things in our cities....bush* perpetual war for profit....BILLIONS for cheney and bush* friends....paid for in OUR soldier's lives....

[dflprincess]

5. There was letter to Star Tribune along this line

It cited how many people are killed in car accidents each year compared to how many Americans have been killed in Iraq (if you added in the Iraqis killed, the guy's numbers wouldn't work).

I can't understand that kind of thinking. X number of people die on the highways, so killing people in a war is not big deal? Someone explain that to me.

[TacticalPeek]

10. Is it possible that there were that many

"The images you are seeing on television you are seeing over and over and over, and it's the same picture of some person coming out of some building with a dead soldier, and you see it 20 times and you think, `My goodness, were there that many dead soldiers?' he said to the journalists' laughter. "Is it possible that there were that many dead soldiers in the whole country?"

[jimshoes]

6. Think about this rummy,

if we weren't there, they wouldn't be trying to kill us. Ah, but then someone else would come and take all that oily goo from under the sand. Can't have that now can we? Maybe its time to get the American oil junkie to kick the habit. Thats something I could get excited about. Think of the research we could do with 200 billion dollars if we weren't funneling it into your pals bank accounts.

[Career Prole]

8. The bastards are already spinning, saying it happened because

they can't do proper background checks on the civilian staff, as though their defense could be "Why, the only way we could have avoided this would be to have Army cooks and soldiers doing their own support work!"

Yeah, the way it used to be before shrub, crashcart, and Rummy farmed this work out to civilians to funnel money to their pals.

The Bush White House, according to a Washington Post analysis in late 2002, is accelerating the process and carrying it to its logical conclusion, having earmarked 214,000 additional uniformed and civilian Army jobs - or one in six - for outside contracting. These include thousands of logistical and support positions not directly related to combat. In practice, this means that, for a price, companies like Halliburton will build the Army's camps and bases, set up its supply-delivery systems, prepare its food, do its laundry, clean its latrines, and prepare its dead for burial. Service branches like the famed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will exist in the future only as contracting agencies, empty shells of their former selves.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/insight/stories/040627oleary.shtml


Whether it was to save money or to divert money to Halliburton, the fact that the Army wasn't running their own foodservice at Camp Marez
just killed a bunch of soldiers.

Thanks, Rummy. :grr:

[Disturbed]

9. Logic

People get killed all the time. Car accidents, fires, drug company drugs, polution etc. A few soldies die but that's to be expected. Why exagerate the importance, eh?

Had the Miliary or the procurement folk made armor a top priority a few hundred people would not a have died and a few thousand may not have been maimed. Is that worth mentioning?

[diamond14]

11. No, it's NOT worth mentioning.... "Shit happens. Shut up."

this is bush* war-on-the-cheap....high profit for bush* cabal comes from low cost for troops....

the amazing part about that "insanely-illogical-bush*-approach" is that it's beginning to blowback.....a major war-profiteering contractor just pulled out of Iraq today...

IMHO, more war-profiteering bush* contractors will follow soon....it's hard to make any profits in the current Iraqmire (which was caused by the war-profiteers themselves)....

and halliburton is getting hammered with major contracting scandals, fines, Congressional Hearings, etc.....this will also get worse....

coming soon to the Iraqmire...a chance to learn the Vietnam lessons AGAIN (photos from the Vietnam pentagoon exit plan, 1975)...war profiteers made gigantic profit off Vietnam too...same companies...that's why we're doing this again....same program...GOOD MORNING IRAQnam....

[Ilsa]

13. Repugnants love minimizing the deaths of soldiers, and love

saying anything to diminish the sacrifices of true heroes.

Meanwhile, they seek to elevate the likes of Ronald Reagan to sainthood for what sacrifice? None. Same with Shrub even though he was AWOL. Damn hypocrites.