Posted on 10/01/2009 6:45:00 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday announced a temporary increase in the size of the U.S. Army that would boost the force by up to 22,000 troops for three years.
He told reporters at a news briefing that the increase, intended to cope with strains from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, would raise the total strength of the Army to 569,000 soldiers.
"The Army faces a period where its ability to deploy combat units at acceptable fill rates is at risk," Gates told reporters. "This is a temporary challenge which will peak in the coming year and abate over the course of the next three years."
The increase is smaller than a plan backed by Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would have added about 30,000 troops to active duty.
The expansion was recommended by the Army's civilian and uniformed leadership and strongly backed by President Barack Obama, Gates said.
The Pentagon plans to absorb an initial expansion cost of $1.1 billion through fiscal year 2010, which begins Oct. 1, without additional funding from Congress. But Gates suggested more funds could be necessary in fiscal years 2011 and 2012.
"These additional forces will be used to ensure that our deploying units are properly manned and not to create new combat formations," he said.
Gates authorized a permanent increase in U.S. Army strength soon after he became defense secretary in 2006, believing the largest branch of the U.S. military did not have enough forces to support heightened operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That increase, which was recently completed, boosted the Army's size by 65,000 soldiers to 547,000. It also added 27,000 Marines to the U.S. Marine Corps.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
It won’t abate because we will be fighting WW III soon.
SOOOOO.....will the Democrats call for a DRAFT again!???
Is there any wonder? For protecting this country and doing your duty, you get accused of rape and murder and put in a court martial...
In the meantime the murdering Muslims get United States’ citizen’s rights, and everything else paid for for them for free, til they are whisked off to a sunny tropical island!!
I wish I had this amazing ability to know how a war will work out.
I like Joe's plan better.
War is the least predictable of all human activities, for the very simple reason that there’s an active intelligence doing his best to mess up your plans (that’s why they call him the enemy). But these guys act like it’s something that can be planned out a decade in advance.
How valid were our 9/10 military staffing projections on 9/12?
Ah yes. They can spend BILLIONS and TRILLIONS on a bunch of BS, but for our soldiers in harm’s way...it has to be budget neutral.
There is a special circle of HELL reserved for the people in this administration.
Fighting WWIII against where? ChiNazi?
In the Mideast.
Agreed. War is completely unpredictable and dangerous. That is why liberals do such a bang up good job when they get involved.
Liberals think war is unpredictable for OTHER people. But THEY can handle it.
Because they are all socialists at heart, which means massive vertical bureaucracy that concentrates all decision making, no matter how small, into the hands of a few thousands of miles from the battlefield.
They cannot resist using the thousand mile screwdriver.
Figured I’d try my new tagline...
I think that is a major reason liberals/socialists dislike war and business.
The formless and evolving nature of these human activities resist being scrunched into their straightjackets of planning. It offends them.
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