The Billiken's Bluff

And this just in from the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld a tank (or even a Humvee) can be blown up by a bomb!!!!!!!!

At a Q&A session in Kuwait Rumsfeld fielded questions from soldiers on the front lines. Many of them wanted to know why they have not been equipped with adequate body armor.

"Why don't we have those resources readily available to us?" Wilson asked Rumsfeld, drawing cheers and applause from many of the 2,300 soldiers assembled in a cavernous hangar here to meet the secretary.

A few minutes later, a soldier from the Idaho National Guard's 116th Armor Cavalry Brigade asked Rumsfeld what he and the Army were doing "to address shortages and antiquated equipment" that will affect National Guard soldiers heading to Iraq.

Rumsfeld, 72, seemed taken aback by the question and a murmur began spreading through the ranks before he silenced it. "Now, settle down, settle down," he said. "Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning, and I'm gathering my thoughts here."



Moreover, he said, adding more armor to trucks and battle equipment doesn't make them impervious to enemy attack.

"If you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up," he said. "And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."

[Via The Chicago Tribune]