[ex 98C MI Dude]

The whole problem lies with the supply equation.

We really needed more troops in Iraq from the start. The bugaboo was our ability to supply/resupply. Troops who can't be fed/armed/fueled are worthless, nay, a detriment to the war effort. Our air and sea-lift capabilities have degraded every year since the end of the Vietnam War. And since this capability cannot be regenerated overnight... you see the problem.

The same thing could be said of Afghanistan and the Tora Bora operation. Many have b*tched, moaned, and complained about how few US forces were involved, but the truth of the matter was we were at the tail end of a very long airborne supply line. We couldn't maintain any size force there for any length of time. So we were forced to use the sub-optimal Afghani forces. It has happened in every war we have ever fought. Normally, the public hasn't been aware of such problems. The MSM of today, determined to be as anti-American as possible, hype said problems to score political points.

As, unfortunately, do some here. Some who claim that they are the 'conservatives', while the rest of us are 'drinking the Bush-bot Kool-aid'.

But Rummy's plan to kill ANOTHER two divisions wasn't smart. I never understood that. Changing to brigade size formations has some merit, as it increases flexibility, but to cut the overall force structure? Foolishness.

[txradioguy]

What's even more foolish in the post 9/11 world is Rummy's resistance to any further expansion of the Army.

They can try to tell people that tese new Brigade Units of Action give us more capability...but all they are doing is a shell game w/ the same amount of soldiers. What they need to do is to stand up the 24th I.D.(M), the 2nd Armored and the 7th I.D.(L) as full fledged divisions again. Permanently station one of them in Iraq similiar to what we've done in Korea.

If we continue with the same troop numbers we have now...we'll have to live with the fact that 51% of the combat power in the ENTIRE Army comes from the National Guard. In the post 9/11 WOT world...that's just not acceptable.