An outraged Lou Dobbs slams Bush, Pentagon for using private security contractors David Edwards and Jason Rhyne

Published: Tuesday October 30, 2007



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Print This Email This In an explosive monologue lambasting President Bush and the Pentagon as "ignorant" for implementing a policy of using private security firms as protection for troops in Iraq, CNN's Lou Dobbs said the US military should be "mortified and embarrassed." The extended outburst followed a story from the network's Jamie McIntyre, who reported that US Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Dorko was wounded in Iraq on Monday when his vehicle was hit by an IED explosion. He is the highest ranking officer yet injured in such an incident. "He was in a convoy that was protected by a private security firm, one indication of the over-stretched US troops," said McIntyre, who noted that the security contractor in question was a British firm and not affiliated with the Blackwater company. "A brigadier general, US military forces, in a convoy protected by a private security contractor?" asked Dobbs later. "An indication of how stretched? It is also an indication of how just ignorant the Pentagon leadership, the general staff is, this president, this commander in chief and the civilian leadership, that we have US military being protected by private security forces..." His voice rising, Dobbs blamed senior military leaders for making a grave error in judgment, in his opinion. "Is there any sense of shame and embarrassment in that Pentagon?" he asked. When McIntyre pointed out that many private contractors are themselves former US military veterans, Dobbs cut him off: "I don't care what they're former," Dobbs said. "They are private security forces being employed to protect men and women in uniform who are making a heck of a lot less money than they are to put their lives on the line in combat. This is obscene, Jamie." "All I'm saying is, the United States military, its leadership, should be mortified and embarrassed," he continued later. Told by McIntyre that the Pentagon hadn't yet made any apologies for their policy, Dobbs called on President Bush to do so. "Well then we have a president who needs to...reverse course on this policy, this is utter, complete, shameless disrespect for every tradition and value of this country," he said. "And frankly, in my opinion," Dobbs told McIntyre, who was reporting from the Pentagon, "it is an absolute disregard for the values of the men and women who have served in that very building you're reporting from." The following video is from CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, broadcast on October 29, 2007.



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