[MplsSteve]

My first impulse is to look at the source of this editorial (the Red Star) and immediately discount it as the kind of tripe they regularly publish. By all accounts, the Red Star's editorial board has been anything but pro-military over the years.

OTOH, I have been reading articles like this for some time now. Some of the articles are from sources that could not be considered liberal or anti-war. I'm not the cut and run type - but I'm now starting to winder if the Army is over-stretched.

Anyone wanna weigh in on this editorial or have thoughts about the study that was commissioned by the Pentagon?

[GermanBusiness]

I recommend the book "Bodyguard of Lies" that you can get from Amazon.

[Gefreiter]

"...the Army is being battered and shattered in the same way that it was in Vietnam"

Yep, by media telling our citizens we're defeated, our cause is hopeless, and our warfighters are garbage.

It does seem about the same.

[tx_eggman]

My first impulse is ...

If, in fact, the Armed Services are stretched, then we need to invest more and build them up to the point where they can do their job on whatever fronts arise in this "interesting" world we live in ... not cut and run from where they are deployed now.

[Always Right]

How are we over-stretched? Are we in danger of Canada attacking us from the north? I suppose you could make the case that we need to reload before we go into Iran, but the US is not at risk of being invaded/atacked by another country.

[Brilliant]

It's pretty pathetic if our army can be stretched to the breaking point by Afghanistan and Iraq. That's well short of the "two major conflicts" Clinton bragged about when the army was much weaker.

[Pessimist]

My first impulse was the same as yours.

But for me the counterbalancing notion is that we shouldn't have to be risking the lives of our guys in this kind of situation right now. My opinion is that one of "our" lives is worth a thousand of "theirs".

They should have simply bombed Iraq into submission, without regard for "world" opinion" at the minimum risk possible to US troops. And frankly, I don't really care about the civilian casualties.

The civilians there know what they have to do if the situation gets too painful. Its up to them to rise up and do it.

Freedom isn't free, and it isn't delivered to your doorstep by foreign emissaries.

[SoFloFreeper]

I think plenty of nay sayers are out there. The job of any commissioned study is to find problems and highlight them. I am certain the people who conducted that study also had positive reflections and words about the Army.

From what I've heard, the DoD's plan is to REDUCE the number of soldiers in coming years and creating a smarter work force with technology.

I've also heard the retention rate among combat units is exceedingly high.

As far as social problems among the men in the Army, well, I can tell you it has always been there....is there anything to indicate it is worse now than ever before?

The press loves to focus on the negative. I can tell you the military's morale was very very low when HITLERY and her sink-staining husband were in the White House. Never saw any editorials or news reports about that, did ya? I wonder why....otoh, I don't.

[DJ Taylor]

"Thus the Army finds itself just where it was in Vietnam...

Not quite, and not yet. At the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military was attacked on a daily basis by a Democrat controlled U.S. Congress and a communist controlled Main Steam News Media that preferred to see our soldiers killed and our country defeated than to allow a Republican President to receive credit for defeating our enemy.

We may see a repeat of this in Iraq, if the elections go badly in November and the Democrats again control Congress. If this happens, Ted Kennedy will get another chance to betray his country and our military, just as he did during the Vietnam War.

[yoe]

The Minneapolis Star/Tribune, also known as the Red Star is living up to its reputation. It isn't the Army that is stretched thin, it is just this sort of propaganda that is beginning to stretch the American will to win THIN.

Kenneth R. Timmerman has written the defining book on Islam and our enemies - "Countdown to Crisis" - a must read for all Americans. Do not take your eye off the ball in Iraq we are winning in that theater which is causing American Marxists like the Red Star, the head Nut in Iran and the numb-skulls in Washington, D.C. to look for a non-victory over Militant Islamists. Our Army is just fine and doing one magnificent job!

SUPPORT OUR MILITARY AND SUPPORT THEIR LEADERS!

[stocksthatgoup]

You've been in Minneapolis too long. If you are consistently bombarded by Red Star articles, held hostage by Left Wing thought the result is understandable. It may be time find another home. Or you might just remember that re-enlistment in Iraq is skyhigh.

If our fight in Iraq is not seen as winning. Then someone please tell me what winning looks like.

[Just A Nobody]

Here is a great interview with a soldier IN Iraq. Better reading than some commie enemedia article.

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/WThomasSmithJr/2006/02/06/185286.html

[Let's Roll]

What they want is to bring back the draft so there can be riots in the streets and insure that our wonderful military degenerates into the drug-infested, mutinous mess that prevailed during Vietnam - but hey, no matter as long as they can finally get Bush.

It's always about getting GWB.

But first, of course, they a have to convince reasonable people that the military is "stretched too thin" before they can destroy it.

[trebb]

File this in the "quagmire" category. The only real roadblocks to a decisive and super fast resolution is our humanitarian stance that tries everything possible to avoid killing civilians. Turn them loose and our Armed Forces don't even break into sweat.

[ModelBreaker]

I love it how the left is all worried about our army now. They have spent almost 40 years trying to destroy our military capability. Now they fret they may have succeeded.

[Eagles Talon IV]

This is a 2 week old story and it is based on ONE of the people who were involved in the study. Others involved, including the Pentagon itself and Rummy disagree.

[roaddog727]

"...the Army is being battered and shattered in the same way that it was in Vietnam"

Battered and shattered only by the Media.

We soldiers don't buy this crap for a minute.

[A.A. Cunningham]

The author fails to thank the Clinton administration for gutting the armed forces and spending the "peace dividend" in the 90s.

Chutzpah: Clinton Cabinet Members Say US Military Broken

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By Jim Kouri

(AXcess News) New York - Two former Bill Clinton cabinet members released a report intended to support the current liberal-left mantra that the "US military is broken." The report warns that immediate action must be taken to repair damaged morale and to make sure Iraqi security forces are ready to assume duties as soon as possible.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected the conclusions, however. He rhetorically asked: what military are they looking at?  Today's military or the military of the 1990s?

The report, which is being touted by the intellectual giants in the Democrat Party and the news media as the proof of problems in the US military, was prepared by former top officials in the administration of President Bill Clinton, led by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former defense secretary William Perry.

"While the US military has performed superbly in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, our ground forces are under enormous strain," said the report by the former Clinton administration officials.

"This strain, if not soon relieved, will have highly corrosive and potentially long-term effects on the force," they said.They accused the current administration of failing to adequately size and equip the force for the post invasion occupation of Iraq, saying it created "a real risk of 'breaking the force.'"

Faltering morale among an overburdened force and eroding public support for the war would threaten the ability of the army and and marines "to maintain sufficient forces to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion."

The military is "in a race against time - attempting to create an effective Iraqi internal security force and corresponding civil structure before the patience of the US centers of gravity - the American people and American soldier - are exhausted." Oh, My God!!! The sky is falling!!! The sky is falling!!!

Had only Ms. Albright and Mr. Perry been so concerned about the erosion of our military when they were in charge during the scandal-ridden reign of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Their assessments contrast sharply with the optimism of senior US officials. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told a press briefing "this force is not broken". He said that the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 had shown the power of the US military.

Clinton's well-known dislike for the military led to his intentional neglect of his primary responsibility: the protection of the American people. During the Clinton Administration, in less than three years, deployments for humanitarian missions increased while manpower decreased from 2.1 million to 1.6 million.

The decrease in armed forces was called "reinvention" of government. While telling Americans that Clinton was making deep cuts in the federal bureaucracy, the media failed to inform Americans exactly what part of that "bureaucracy" was being cut. It was the military who suffered the cuts in order to make Clinton a hero.

Of the 305,000 employees removed from the federal payroll, 286,000 (or 90%) were military cuts. The statistics for America's defense during the Clinton years reveal the true feelings of the administration toward those who served in the military. The Army was cut from 18 divisions to 12. The Navy was reduced from 546 ships to 380. Air Force flight squadrons were cut from 76 to a mere 50. There were reductions in tanks, armored vehicles, rocket launchers, special forces units, etc., etc., etc.

In addition, President Clinton loosened America's ban on the export of supercomputers and other high-technology products to Communist China; this allowed Beijing to improve the accuracy of its intercontinental missiles. A prime American beneficiary of this Clinton policy was Loral Space & Communications chairman Bernard Schwartz, the single largest contributor to the Clinton campaign and to the Democrat Party.

In 1996 it was discovered that Chinese spies had stolen nuclear design secrets from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the most damaging security breach in American history -- giving China the ability to produce and deliver nuclear warheads via submarines, mobile missiles, and long-range missiles. A 1998 Senate Governmental Affairs Committee concluded that foreign campaign contributions Clinton had received "were facilitated by individuals with extensive ties to China."

Apparently, while reducing our military capabilities here in the US, President Clinton was helping the Chinese build up their own capabilities. Not much has changed since the days when Clinton marched in London under the flag of North Vietnam.

As far as morale, perhaps the Democrats should stop their vitrolic ranting in which they compare US soldiers to Nazis (Senator Durbin) or terrorists (Senator Kerry) or managers of torture chambers (Senator Kennedy). 

Mr. Perry and Ms. Albright would do also better if they wrote and released a statement apologizing for their silence when their boss was deconstructing the US Armed Forces and ignoring terrorist threats, than conducting politicized studies to aid the people who despise the military but see an opportunity to once again blame the Bush Administration.

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Date:  January 26, 2006
Section: National News
The URL for this article is: http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=7829