Posted on 12/19/2005 2:23:26 PM PST by Moonraker
Bullshit. It took the US 18 months after Pearl Harbor.
You can use all the profanity you want, but it won't change the facts.
I'll say it again. The reason it took 18 months as you say (actually it was less time than that) was because we already had a sound military organzation with a very, very strong stable of officers and NCOs.
"And as I've recently reported in a few different venues, it takes about seven to eight years (including college) to mold an American Army officer into an infantry company commander. Fifteen to 17 years for a battalion commander. Twenty to 22 years for a brigade commander. Twenty-five years for a division commander."
General McClellan would have loved this guy in 1862. We don't have 25 years. We probably don't have 5 years. There is an even chance that as of Inauguration Day 2008, Iraq will largely be on its own and the timetable should be set accordingly. Iraq use to have a 1,000,000 - man Army and fought three wars and multiple insurgencies. From that pool of veterans, you should be able to find enough officers and NCOs to command and staff 150 battalions.
You make a good point about McClellan, but Lincoln had a pool of experienced generals to draw from and as the reporter says "Sure, it was probably a mistake to disband the old Iraqi army soon after the invasion phase of the war in 2003, but we all understand hindsight, so let's move on."http://www.worlddefensereview.com/wts121905.shtml
I also do not believe that the US army wants to rely on the old ways of the old Iraqi army. Abuse and corruption were rampant and commanders followed orders out fear. There was little initiative.
Want to know the truth? Get your head out of the NYT and the WP. Start reading the soldiers blogs.
Also, IED placing is something that not everyone would have access to as an activity. If you happen to be poor, expendable, and live near somewhere an insurgent wants to heat up, you might have a opportunity. Not everyone fits all those categories. The army appeals to a much wider cross-section of the population.
Yeah, indeed.
The draft started in 1940. Prior to that, I seem to remember that we had about 200,000 men/women under arms.
By the end of the war, that had increased to about 16 million. Somehow we built the services, army, navy, marines, coast guard to be highly effective in a lot less than a decade.
The Lord only knows the mistakes we made along the way. But the armed services, built up in two to three years, did a yeomanlike job in defeating Germany and Japan.
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