Kentucky National Guard Members Return Home; Pentagon Briefing
PHILLIPS: It was exactly a week ago that we told you the U.S. military death toll in Iraq had reached 2,000. And now there's another grim milestone. A colonel has become the highest ranking U.S. officer to be killed in combat in this Iraq war. William Wood died last week in an explosion just south of Baghdad. He was a lieutenant colonel at the time, but in a twist of fate, Wood didn't know that he'd been approved for promotion to colonel. The Army made the promotion posthumously. Well, as we remember Colonel William Wood and what he died fighting for, we are extremely thankful for those soldiers who always come home alive -- not always come home alive, rather. But today, we do welcome home the Kentucky National Guard 617th Military Police Company. These men and women are home after a year in the war zone and an infamous battle. Three in their ranks received Silver Stars. Three dozen were seriously wounded. Two didn't come home. But we're going to honor them all today. Joining me now from Louisville is the 617th commander, Captain Todd Lindner, and Specialist Jason Mike, one of the Silver Star recipients. Guys, great to see you.</s>SPECIALIST JASON MIKE, KENTUCKY NATIONAL GUARD: Thanks.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, of course, we want to get into your stories and talk more about what happened in Iraq, but I want to let you both know we're waiting for this briefing at the Pentagon. And Donald Rumsfeld expected to come forward and talk about this report that the military is putting out on roadside bombs and IEDs. And I know both of you had to go up against this threat, constantly, while you were in Iraq. Captain, why don't we start with you? And just tell me, as you had to maintain calm among these men and women, how did you prepare your fellow soldiers for that threat once you got to Iraq? You dealt with it for an entire year.</s>CAPT. TODD LINDNER, KENTUCKY NATIONAL GUARD: Initially, the preparation started about a year prior to our mobilization, where we started just at the individual team level, particularly when you're talking about IEDs, we focused on identification and then reaction, anticipating that you would be attacked by IEDs what to do after the attack, or after the explosion.</s>PHILLIPS: And Mike, you're -- or Jason, you're a medic, and you had to respond as soon as one of your fellow men and women were devastated by one of these IEDs. I mean, how did you prep yourself for that? You knew this was going to be a threat. You knew you'd have to work on your fellow men and women in a certain way. How did you prepare for that?</s>SPC. JASON MIKE, KENTUCKY NATIONAL GUARD: For the most part, I just look at the lessons learned that were taught before I went over there. Pretty much looking at different film, looking at different pictures of what the IEDs can do, what kind of injuries they cause. Pretty much preparing myself for -- to pretty much give the best treatment I can, knowing which injury would be -- would be present at the time that I arrive on the scene.</s>PHILLIPS: And gentlemen, I'm being told that Donald Rumsfeld just walked out. He's getting ready to step up to the podium. Stay with us. We'll monitor this briefing. We'll come back and talk about your heroic stories. We'll be right back.</s>DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: ... opportunity to visit with U.S. troops serving in South Korea, to thank them for their service and their sacrifice. I noted to them that within my lifetime the same now-free and prosperous South Korea that they're helping to defend was almost completely destroyed by a terrible conflict. In the three years of the Korean War, nearly 40,000 Americans would fall in brutal combat and U.S. forces endured many setbacks along the way. President Harry Truman, now remembered as a fine president, would leave office in 1953 with an approval rating of about 25 percent: one of the lowest recorded ratings since folk started measuring those things. Back then a great many people questioned whether young Americans should face death and injury in Korea, thousands of miles from home, for a result that seemed uncertain at best. And today the answer -- there's the Korean Peninsula. Satellite photo, Demilitarized Zone; this is Pyongyang, the capital. And it gives you a little idea of the contrast between a free political system and a free economic system. Same people North and South, same resources North and South; the only difference is the North has a repressive political regime and a command economy and people are starving, and in the South, the free economic system and free political system have created an economic miracle. But the question was, Should young Americans be sent over there at the risk of their lives?</s>RUMSFELD: And, of course, the answer to that question is clear to anyone who visits the Korean Peninsula today or who had the privilege of meeting, as I have done, some of the 3,000 South Korean troops who are helping the people of Iraq rebuild and secure their new-found freedom. This week in Iraq candidates and political parties representing all of the ethnic groups will begin campaigning in the parliamentary elections to be held on December 15th, something that's truly remarkable. Consider that just under three years ago this same Iraq was home to one of the most vicious regimes of the 20th century, a regime that had invaded two of its neighbors, harbored and rewarded terrorists, filled mass graves with hundreds of thousand of its own people. These parliamentary elections are taking place under a new constitution, a constitution approved in the October 15th referendum by nearly 80 percent of the Iraqi people. During the last month's referendum, in comparison to the January 30th elections, four times as many Iraqis applied to be poll workers and approximately 1 million more Iraqis registered and over 1 million more voted, including a large number of Sunnis that had boycotted the last election and who are now forming slates of candidates to run for the new parliament. Coalition commanders continue to closely monitor the Iraqi political environment and security situation on the ground. Based on those evaluations, they will shortly be making recommendations for future troop rotations.</s>RUMSFELD: In this complex and unconventional conflict, we are constantly looking for ways to strengthen our armed forces. For a number of years, the chairman and I and others have been working on plans to further improve the special forces. One of the results of those studies is that I've just approved the creation of a Marine Corps component in the U.S. Special Operations Command which will increase the number of special operations forces available for missions worldwide, while expanding their capabilities in some key areas. The department will provide additional details as they're available. I should point out that the Marine Corps was the one element of our four services that had not been previously involved with special operations. It's important that we continue to assess and adapt because of the nature of the enemy that we face. It's an enemy that believes that we, the free and civilized world, don't have the stamina or the will to sustain a difficult effort over the necessary period of time. That is what Osama bin Laden has said. That's what Zawahiri and Zarqawi have said. They know that the center of gravity of this war is not in Baghdad, but in Washington and London, in the homes and the cities, and the hearing rooms and the newsrooms of coalition countries. Their ultimate objective is a radical new caliphate that seeks to dominate the Middle East and to intimidate the free world, as totalitarians have tried over past decades. I've watched the spread of communism and the fall of communism, the spread of fascism and the fall of fascism. At times, each toxic ideology was considered the wave of the future and was predicted to triumph over our way of life by people who should have known better.</s>RUMSFELD: I'm confident that once again, when we do persevere, as we shall, what the American people will remember years from now will be our contribution to a new way of life for millions of people, who through struggle and loss and sacrifice became allies that made possible the victory for freedom in this global war on terror. General Pace?</s>GENERAL PETER PACE, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Thank you, sir. I think with all that's going on, we can all take great pride in the fact our nation has both the capacity and the compassion to assist the Pakistan government in their disaster relief efforts. Right now we have over 800 U.S. armed forces on the ground, side by side with their Pakistani counterparts; over 24 medium- and heavy- lift helicopters, with nine more on the way; fixed wing airplanes are dropping relief supplies; almost 4,000 tons of relief supplies have been delivered; hospitals providing medical care; engineers and CVs who are helping to clear roads and make it possible for the government of Pakistan to provide the help that those citizens need. So we are proud to be part of that. With that, we'll take your questions.</s>QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, why do you think Guantanamo detainees have engaged in a hunger strike since early August? And will the United States allow U.N. investigators who have been invited to visit Guantanamo to meet with detainees?</s>RUMSFELD: Well, I suppose that what they're trying to do is to capture press attention, obviously, and they've succeeded. The negotiations and discussions that have taken place with the U.N. folks have been to offer them an opportunity to go to Guantanamo and see for themselves. We have, however, not indicated to them, as I understand it, that they would have exactly the same opportunities that the International Committee of the Red Cross has. There's got to be a limit to how one does that.</s>RUMSFELD: And the ICRC has been doing it for a great many years and has had complete and total access ever since Guantanamo was opened. And so we're not inclined to add the number of people that would be given that extensive access.</s>QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, when you were in Beijing and South Korea, did you get any concrete indications that North Korea's now willing to back down on its tough position to continue building nuclear weapons?</s>RUMSFELD: No.</s>QUESTION: General Pace, the military has now seen October being one of the most deadly months in the war in Iraq. What's your overall assessment as to what's going on with the insurgency right now, with respect especially to IEDs? Why are IED attacks up? What are you seeing in the way of these new, more sophisticated IEDs that are now being spoken about, that include explosively formed projectiles? Why are these new technologies now being seen in Iraq? What's your assessment, overall, of the IED situation?</s>PACE: Well, I think, first of all, it's understandable that the two months that have had the highest casualties were last January and this October. Both were election months in Iraq. Both saw coalition forces and U.S. forces at increased levels and individuals on the ground. And, as we projected would happen, the insurgents were trying to divert the Iraqi people, prevent them from participating in a political process. So it did not surprise us that we had more attacks. With regard to the IEDs, I do not want to get into the specifics of that because it is very much a tactics, techniques and procedures process, wherein we learn, they learn.</s>PACE: It is fair to say, though, that the IEDs are a concern for us, and we are continuing to work through all of our technologies, tactics, techniques and procedures to provide to our soldiers and Marines on the ground the best possible personal protection, not only in the form of armor, but also in how we operate on the battlefield.</s>QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, along those lines, you would also expect that December would equally be a volatile month because of the election coming up. Are you planning to either increase troop levels or extend any other troops to bolster the strength of the forces there for the election and also to combat this IED increased threat?</s>RUMSFELD: We have had a pattern of increasing the number of coalition forces during periods when there was an expectation that the insurgents and the terrorists would like to try to disrupt the political process. And we've made a conscious decision to try to prevent them from being successful in disrupting the political process. And we have been consistently successful in doing so. Our folks have done a wonderful job. The Iraqi security forces have done a wonderful job. We've done the same thing in Afghanistan each time there was a major political event. We'll decide what we're going to do about December as we go along, but it would not be a surprise to me that the commanders would want to have some sort of an overlap there.</s>QUESTION: General Pace, can you talk about the insurgency overall? Have you seen a change in the make-up in recent months, in recent weeks? What do you thing the foreign fighter, local insurgent and criminal element really is today?</s>PACE: I think what we have is an insurgency that is more and more aware of the fact that each time the Iraqi people go to vote, each time they state their own free will in the way they have at the ballot box, that the insurgency is more and more in trouble of doing what they want to do, which is dominate those people. So from the standpoint of the insurgents, they are very concerned -- as they should be -- that the Iraqi people want to have a free lifestyle that they pick for themselves. And therefore, they are using attacks on civilians, primarily -- murder of civilians, as a way to try to get the Iraqi people to back down from their opportunity to live the way they want to live. So I see the insurgents' acts as an indication that the Iraqi people are, in fact, making progress, moving forward, and their government is as well.</s>QUESTION: On the make-up of the insurgency, are there more foreign fighters today than there were last month?</s>PACE: I don't know that that's definable. I think what is definable is the amount of territory that is being controlled, for example, by the Iraqi armed forces. Today we have one division headquarters, four brigade headquarters and 24 battalions of Iraqis who are, in fact, controlling areas of their own country, providing protection for their own citizens. And that will continue to grow, which will squeeze out the insurgents.</s>QUESTION: General Pace, back on the IED question a little bit, without getting into tactics and techniques, the Pentagon and the U.S. military has spent a lot of time, effort and money to find ways to detect and defeat the IED threat, yet it still remains the number one threat, if not killer, of American troops in Iraq.</s>QUESTION: How is it that the insurgency is able to continue to use the IEDs so effectively?</s>PACE: Well, first of all, there's an enormous amount of ordnance in Iraq still, as evidenced every week by the literally tons of ammunition that we find in locations that we did not know about before. So that resource is available to the insurgents. Beyond that, I do not want to get into specifics of how they are employing the IEDs, nor how we are defending against them, because that really would put our troops at risk.</s>QUESTION: General, though, in the last year the U.S. has almost tripled the number of armored vehicles over there. It was like 16,000 last year before the hillbilly armor controversy; now it's nearly over 40,000. Yet they're attacking troops in armored vehicles that we spent, like, $4 billion on. What do you tell the public -- you got two things going on: more IED deaths, yet the increase in the armor is exponential; doesn't seem to be working.</s>PACE: Between the increase in armor and the changes in tactics, techniques and procedures that we've employed, the numbers of IED attacks that have been effective has gone down and the numbers of casualties per effective attack has gone down. That said, there are more overall IED attacks by the insurgents, and we are working on that problem.</s>QUESTION: Recently, Larry Wilkerson, a former State Department official, described what he said was a cabal between you and Vice President Cheney in forming public policy leading up to the war. And he described what he said was a seriously dysfunctional foreign policy. I don't think we've heard you speak on that. Can you just respond to that?</s>RUMSFELD: I haven't read this. I've heard about it. And I don't know the man. I've never met the man. And I don't believe he's ever been in a meeting of the NSC, so it's hard for me to understand exactly what his insights might have been.</s>RUMSFELD: But, obviously, the president is the one who makes foreign policy, and the secretary of state is the one that implements foreign policy. And it's the country's policy. I don't know what else one could say.</s>QUESTION: He seems to be complaining the State Department's role in that was minimized in the lead-up to the war.</s>RUMSFELD: My experience in those meetings is that the president is the principal person who decides these things. And if he -- what was his job, this fellow?</s>QUESTION: He was chief of staff to Powell.</s>RUMSFELD: I don't know what his perspective was or what his expectations were.</s>QUESTION: Do you think he was speaking for Secretary Powell?</s>RUMSFELD: Oh, my goodness: Secretary Powell's perfectly capable of speaking for himself. I can't imagine.</s>QUESTION: You didn't interpret it that way?</s>RUMSFELD: I didn't.</s>QUESTION: So there was no cabal?</s>RUMSFELD: Of course not, my goodness gracious. The president of the United States makes these decisions, and he did it in open meetings and discussions that went on at great length. And that kind of a perspective, obviously, is looking through the wrong end of a telescope, I think.</s>QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, back to Guantanamo, why not allow these U.N. human rights officials access to interviews with the detainees? Wouldn't that put this issue to rest?</s>RUMSFELD: No. It's very much in some people's interest to have it not be at rest. And the International Committee of the Red Cross has total, complete, full access there and has since day one. Second, it's not that the Department of Defense's decision. This is a government decision, a matter of policy. As to what extent they want to open that aperture and allow any number of additional organizations that exist in the world to do that -- apparently the United States government's made a decision -- not the Pentagon, but the government's made a decision that they think that having the ICRC do that is the appropriate thing. And so that's that.</s>QUESTION: Do you approve of the force-feeding of detainees who are on hunger strike?</s>RUMSFELD: I'm not a doctor and I'm not the kind of a person who would be in a position to approve or disapprove. It seems to me, looking at it from this distance, is that the responsible people are the combatant commanders. And the Army is the executive agent for detainees. They have expert medical people who make decisions of that type. And they've made a decision that they think it's appropriate for them to provide nourishment to people who, for whatever reason, at various points in their detention, decide they want to not provide normal nourishment to themselves. There are a number of things that one can glean from the way it's being done. I don't think there's a serious risk of people -- I shouldn't say that. I am not in a position to know that. But there are a number of people who go on a diet where they don't eat for a period and then go off of it at some point.</s>RUMSFELD: And then they rotate and other people do that. So it's clearly a technique to try to get the attention of you folks, and they're successful.</s>QUESTION: One difference between the ICRC and the rapporteurs is that the ICRC operates under a confidentiality arrangement, whereas the rapporteurs are going to make their findings public. Is that what the government or the department is concerned about? Is that the reason they're not taking any action...</s>RUMSFELD: Not at all. The ICRC does it for a very obvious reason. They do it because that's the only way they can be assured that they're going to have access to countries around the world. And there's a very good reason for the ICRC policy. Obviously, the other people seem not to find that reason valid. But I'm not involved in the decision. That is a decision that the government of the United States has got to address, because it's a precedent that applies across the government.</s>PHILLIPS: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, side by side with General Peter Pace There, talking about a military report on Iraqi roadside bombs. Insurgents continually searching for new and more effective ways to use IEDs, improvised explosive devices, going on to say, while U.S. forces look for new ways to counter that threat. Obviously still dealing with it on a daily basis. Two soldiers that know about dealing with those on a daily basis, course, are these two men, members of the Kentucky National Guard, 617th Military Police Company. They are home. It is great to see them smiling. We're going to talk to them about their mission overseas, and their stories of survival and Silver Stars. We'll be right back.