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View Full Version : Strains on ground forces limit U.S. options in Iraq



thedrifter
04-13-07, 07:33 AM
Strains on ground forces limit U.S. options in Iraq


"Even the highest morale is eventually undermined by back-to-back deployments. Something has to give and it's giving. Resources are overstretched. Frustration is up, as families are separated and strained. Morale is down. Recruitment is more difficult. And many of our best people in the military are headed for civilian life."

A quote from a 2008 presidential contender, blasting President Bush for stretching the U.S. Army to the breaking point?

No, that's then-candidate George W. Bush in September 1999, criticizing Bill Clinton for overextending the military in deployments to places such as Bosnia and Kosovo.

Bush had a point then, but it's a much sharper one now. A president who came into office promising to rehabilitate the military has done the opposite. The strains on the Army and Marine Corps, which account for most of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, are approaching the danger point and limiting U.S. flexibility to respond to global challenges.

Bush's original plans fell victim in part to 9/11, which provoked a necessary war on terror, including the attack on al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. But so much more was unnecessary: A war of choice in Iraq, and then-Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld's stubborn refusal to enlarge the Army and Marines, have combined to leave an undersized ground force waging wars it was not designed to fight for this long.

The active-duty Army and Marines were downsized after the Cold War, and deliberately left that way. The part-time forces from the Guard and Reserve were supposed to make up the difference, but only as a stop-gap in a short war. Instead, the war in Afghanistan is in its sixth year, Iraq in its fifth.

A quarter-million U.S. troops have served multiple tours. Units have routinely been forced to stay past the point when they were scheduled to leave, or had their home stays shortened to send them back to combat early. To maintain the surge of troops into Baghdad, the Pentagon said Wednesday that active-duty Army troops will have their tours extended by three months past the current one-year norm. And for the first time since 9/11, the Pentagon is preparing to send entire National Guard brigades back to the war zone for second combat tours.

Equipment is worn out or gone; some state National Guard units are worried about having the trucks and other gear they need to cope with natural disasters. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the Army and the Army Reserve are meeting recruiting targets; what he doesn't say is that the Pentagon is spending enormous amounts in "bonuses" and other inducements to lure soldiers to the volunteer Army, or keep them.

When money doesn't work, the Pentagon quietly lowers its standards: The Army is accepting unprecedented numbers of felons and recruits who haven't graduated from high school. There's no short-term fix. A belated push to increase the size of the volunteer Army and the Marines will take years to accomplish, and there is no political will to impose a draft.

Bush is warning Congress not to set a "timetable" to end the war in Iraq. In reality, a timetable already exists, one based on available resources. The dirty little truth of this war is that the burden of the fighting is being borne by the few, and they have never had all they need to win because Bush has been unwilling to demand that the many join the sacrifice. That imbalance is becoming harder and harder to sustain.

Ellie