The Army has been kept on short rations of troops and equipment for years by a Pentagon more intent on stockpiling futuristic weapons than fighting today’s wars. Now it is pushing up against the limits of hard arithmetic. Senior generals are warning that the Bush administration may have to break its word and again use National Guard units to plug the gap, but no one in Washington is paying serious attention. That was clear last week when Congress recklessly decided to funnel extra money to the Air Force’s irrelevant F-22 stealth fighter.
From the military experts at the NYT. How many years' collective military experience do the NYT editors have, anyway? Seriously?
Click on link and see what I mean.
Let's shut off the federal money tap to favorite liberal projects and funnel the money into the military. Alternately, a national tax on "organic" foods and latte to buy weapons systems and body armour.
BS. The US Congress JUST passed a bill yesterday that adresses all of this. Guess the NY Slimes just could not pass up republishing the latest DNC Talking Poing memo to actually report the truth.
...and what really burns me is that this has to be discussed in public during wartime, since our government has not been properly taking care of business.
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Hysteria \Hys*te"ri*a\, n. [NL.: cf. F. hyst['e]rie. See
Hysteric.] (Med.)
A nervous affection, occurring almost exclusively in women,
in which the emotional and reflex excitability is
exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished,
so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes
the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into
paroxism or fits.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The chief symptoms are convulsive, tossing movements of
the limbs and head, uncontrollable crying and laughing,
and a choking sensation as if a ball were lodged in the
throat. The affection presents the most varied
symptoms, often simulating those of the gravest
diseases, but generally curable by mental treatment
alone. Hysteric
The N.Y. Times and the Democrats in general are engaged in wishful thinking. They hope that our troops will be killed and wounded, and that the United States will appear to lose the war on terror while Bush is in office. They are totally frustrated and disappointed that there have been no terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11/01.
Let me get this straight - the bozos at the NYT are concerned about undermining the credibility of American foreign policy for years to come, yet they are pushing for the US to surrender and withdraw from Iraq. Clearly they believe that their readers are idiots, utterly bereft of critical thinking skills (either that, or the writer is an idiot utterly bereft of critical thinking skills)...
There is no newspaper in the nation that knows less about military affairs than the NYT.
These reporters are the dumbest I have ever seen. Morons.
And may I add to my former comments....They are suicidal morons, content to believe that because a bomb has not exploded on their block, none ever will.
The Islamofacists are not going to take down Lincoln, Nebraska, they will attack New York and Washington (note to the NYT reporters...that is Washington, DC).
Folks, we're one month from important elections. The left and the media will be throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at us. It will be relentless and sickening, and the truth or the public good will be far down the list of their priorities.
For an Army on the edge, recruitment and retention don't seem to be hurting.
These jerks should do their homework in what The Impeached One did to gut our military, just as Carter did.
.
The LIBERTY Century =
Words:
http://www.Freerepublic.com/~ALOHARONNIE
Pictures:
http://www.RickRescorla.com/The%20Statue.htm
Posts:
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361
.
I think that the Army has basically been destroyed in detail by Rumsfeld. The Division as a concept has been dismantled and divided into boutique brigades. The large support units have been dismantled. The artillery corps has been dismantled and turned into infantry replacements. Their weapons are no longer used. Indeed, except for a few 155 units they do not exist in Iraq. Fort Sill, the artillery school, has been turned into an infantry basic training base. The cream of the armor tanks has been moved to Iraq where it is bogged down in desert sand and heat and will eventually have to be rebuilt or replaced if another war emergency arises. Army transportation units are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Most of the trucks located in Iraq will never be returned to the US. The pride of American transpotation is being IEDed into a huge junkpile. Forces have been redeployed from other venues, Korea, Germany leaving huge gaps in those areas.
All of this distruction is due to Rumsfeld's pigheadedness in fighting a war on the cheap, canibalizing the Army and its equipment and fighting a war without a coherent plan. Imagine fighting a major war without a draft, with a half sized Navy and no general mobilization- pure stupidity. That's why the enemy hasn't capitulated. They know we're not serious. And that's why this is a dangerous time. It's tempting for North Korea, say, to twist our noses because we don't have the troops or equipment to fight a real war over there. China, perhaps even Russia, will now be tempted to raise hell because we are overextented in Iraq. I think it's now time to begin the draft and raise new divisions and resupply our forces anew, and replace Rummy.
The "problem" is not, nor has ever been the quality, training or readiness of those in uniform!
The "problem" is trying to fight a Politically Correct war against a large, media savvy and allied, though poorly-trained and equipped Multi-National maniacal enemy.
Toss out Embedded Reporters, the Laws Of Armed Conflict, (LOAC) Rules Of Engagement (ROE) and the Geneva Convention. Get back to a solid WWII "We are here. They are everywhere else!" mentality and the tide would turn before Christmas.
Jack.
Irrelevant? Gee whiz!
According to one of your crack reporters, just two days ago, it “can fly at 60,000 feet, twice as high as any other plane.”
Where were they during the Carter administration? I remember how decrepit our equipment was during my tour in Germany, and the lack of funds for spare parts and training. It was always a struggle to have 3/4 of our weapons systems operational, which was the minimum requirement.
The average soldier that was in my platoon/battery/battalion was just as good as they are today. In some ways, they were better, because they learned rapidly how to make do with less. Fortunately, far fewer marginal recruits are allowed to enlist today.