SENATE HEARINGS:To begin on insurgency, shortages
By WALTER PINCUS
Washington Post
December 15,2004
WASHINGTON - The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold hearings on the Iraq war when the new Congress convenes next month, including an examination of criticism that the Defense Department failed to prepare for the insurgency and went into action with a shortage of armor for trucks and Humvees, the panel's ranking Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Tuesday.
Levin, speaking from Belgium in a conference call with reporters, was returning with Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the committee's chairman, from a round of talks in Baghdad with U.S. military leaders, and criticized the administration's "poor planning and rosy scenarios" it relied on before the invasion.
"The problem was created in the assumption that was adopted going in ... that there would be a peaceful aftermath and that we wouldn't be using Humvees and trucks in urban guerrilla warfare," Levin said. "That was a false assumption" and "has led to a lot of problems, including the inadequate troops and equipment not being sufficient to deal with the violent aftermath." He said that the "major issue now is the (supply) trucks where only something like 20 percent ... have adequate armor."
Gen. Michael W. Hagee, second left, the U.S. Marine Corps commandant, inspects an armored Humvee vehicle which recently was hit with an improvised explosive device while driven by Marines on an operation, leaving only one soldier wounded. During the visit in Ramadi, Iraq, Hagee talked primarily with newly-seasoned younger Marines, who spoke to him about the situation on the ground as they see it. (AP)
Criticism that the Pentagon has too few armored vehicles in Iraq intensified last week, when a soldier asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a televised meeting in Kuwait why troops were having to scavenge for armor plating in junkyards. Rumsfeld replied: "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
Rumsfeld was criticized widely for his response, and on Monday Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told the Associated Press in an interview that he had "no confidence" in Rumsfeld, although he said he was not calling for the defense secretary's resignation.
At the White House Tuesday, spokesman Scott McClellan was asked about McCain's comment, and said President Bush "reacts by saying that Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a great job during a time of war. We appreciate his leadership at the Department of Defense. And that's why the president asked him to continue his service."
Separately, the Pentagon announced Tuesday which major units it plans to send to Iraq during 2005 and early 2006 if it is deemed necessary to maintain the current level of about 140,000 troops.
The two major active-duty units tapped for Iraq duty are the 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas, and the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky. Both were in Iraq during 2003, and so will be on their second occupation tour there.
Also listed as likely to go to Iraq are brigades from other divisions - the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Riley, Kan., and the 1st Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, from Fort Drum, N.Y. In addition, the Pentagon plans to send the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from Fort Wainwright, Alaska, and a brigade from the Georgia National Guard.
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said that other units, including from the Marine Corps, might be alerted for deployment. "What this is, is prudent planning to identify those units" that might need to go to Iraq, he said at a Pentagon briefing. "It may very well be less than this. It may be the same amount. It may be more." |
