Rumsfeld defends "death watch"

[michaelbor...@yahoo.com]

From:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_082706A.shtml

Soldiers' Families Question Rumsfeld on Deployment
By Kristin Roberts
Reuters

Saturday 26 August 2006

Fairbanks, Alaska - The wives of soldiers whose duty in Iraq was
extended to add troop strength to Baghdad peppered U.S. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with tough questions, some that he could not
answer, at a closed-door meeting in Alaska on Saturday.

Rumsfeld, who received a mixed reception from a crowd that offered
more applause for the questions asked than the answers provided,
praised the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. He would not commit to a
date for bringing those soldiers home, but told a 12-year-old girl in
the audience, "I'd bet your daddy gets home before Christmas."

He also told the estimated 700 to 800 family members at the meeting
in an Army gymnasium that what the soldiers were doing was necessary to
ensure terrorism does not strike the United States.

"In five or 10 or 15 years, you'll all be able to look back and
appreciate the importance of what's being done and the value of what's
being done," he told the crowd.

Rumsfeld's meeting with family members was closed to the press,
unlike other large events, such as "town hall" sessions with troops.
But some wives taped the event and one shared the recording with
reporters.

Afterward, Rumsfeld said it was a "terrific" meeting. He said he
spent 45 minutes speaking with people one-on-one after the larger
session.

"I'm enormously pleased that I came," he told reporters.

Questions from family members ranged from personal appeals for help
on securing short-time leave for soldiers to broader issues, such as
whether another brigade was being trained to replace the 172nd Stryker
Brigade Combat Team - a question that received thunderous applause from
the crowd and calls for a yes or no response.

The defense secretary said he could not give them a definitive
answer.

"I wish I had a magic wand and the power to say, 'yes.' But I
don't," he told them. He said he would do everything he could to make
sure the brigade's tour in Iraq was not extended again.

The Pentagon decided last month to keep about 3,000 Alaska-based
soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Iraq, extending
their tours and returning more than 300 who had already gone back home.
The move was part of an effort to boost security in Baghdad, where an
escalation of violence has raised concerns even among top U.S. generals
that the sectarian conflict could deteriorate into civil war.

U.S. commanders have said the soldiers whose tours were extended
were well-suited to the Baghdad mission, in part due to their
experience in Mosul. The security clampdown in Iraq's capital has
reduced violence, commanders have said.

The extended deployment poses a hardship for both troops who have
been sent to one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq, and their
families in Alaska.

The delay has also put families and the U.S. Army on what one
defense official called a "death watch" for soldiers who otherwise
would have been on their way home if not already there.

Some family members gave Rumsfeld credit for spending an hour with
them in Fairbanks, Alaska. But others said they were not satisfied.

"I think it was a show," said Jennifer Davis, the wife of one
soldier in Iraq. She declined to give her husband's name.

Rumsfeld's visit to Fairbanks lured curious onlookers, one of whom
yelled to the defense secretary to "get us out of Iraq."

"I know the feeling," he yelled back.