15 Minutes of Unwanted Fame

So the day after the Secretary of Defense holds a tense question-and-answer session with the U.S. troops in Iraq, the story spins out of control: Yahoo! News - Bush, Rumsfeld Try to Soothe Angry U.S. Troops

What's most interesting about this story is how the press has focused on one particular exchange, in which a lowly enlisted man dared to complain to Rumsfeld that they the soldiers have been reduced to digging in scrap heaps to find armor for their vehicles. Rumsfeld's initial response? "Can you repeat the question?"

Well, that was enough for the press. They have identified the soldier as Specialist Thomas Wilson, and ABC's "Good Morning America" show went so far as to look up the poor man's wife, Regina, and put her on the show this morning, only to grill her about the nerve of her husband. Or something like that, I didn't really watch the show...

Which really begs the question: which part of all this hoopla is NEWS? We already knew the troops were underprotected...that story came out months ago. We pretty much knew Rumsfeld would hem and haw about the reason the Pentagon sends unprepared troops to do battle ("You go to war with the Army you have"), so that's not news.

I guess the newsworthy element was watching a private question a superior officer...the Secretary of Defense! I wonder if he'll face a court martial for insubordination? Check out Rummy's quote about how he was going to handle the soldier's temerity: "I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing."

Good for who?

More later...
Paul