The Hindu : International : Rumsfeld under fire over `armour'

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Friday, Dec 24, 2004

International

International

Rumsfeld under fire over `armour'

By Eric Schmitt

WASHINGTON, DEC. 23. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, hurt by criticism that he was insensitive to soldiers' pleas for more armoured equipment in Iraq and to the families of troops killed there, offered an impassioned defence on Wednesday.

The often combative Secretary said when he met the family members of those killed in Iraq, ``their grief is something I feel to my core. I am truly saddened by the thought that anyone could have the impression that I or others here are doing anything other than working urgently to see that the lives of the fighting men and women are protected and are cared for in every way humanly possible,'' he said at a Pentagon news conference.

``I hope and pray that every family member of those who have died so bravely knows how deeply I feel their loss,'' he said. Mr. Rumsfeld has come under sharp criticism from Democrats and Republicans for what they say was his callous treatment of soldiers' requests for better equipment to take to war and for signing by machine letters to families in mourning.

Mr. Rumsfeld offered his conciliatory comments before answering questions with Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about an explosion on Tuesday at an American base in Mosul, Iraq, that killed at least 22 persons.

After Gen. Myers announced that investigators believed the bombing was the work of a suicide bomber who infiltrated a crowded mess tent, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked how a militant could possibly penetrate American security so brazenly.

The contrite Rumsfeld of a few minutes earlier returned to his more typically confident self in explaining that it was the deadly militancy and the broader forces of extremism that were responsible for the attack, not any lapse by American commanders on the ground charged with protecting their troops. - New York Times News Service

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