Posted on 03/29/2007 1:04:06 PM PDT by pabianice
This is, like, "breaking point" number 37, isn't it??
We've been told that the Army was "nearing the breaking point" since the sandstorm during the initial invasion!!!
The U.S. Armed Services are more ready, more battle tested, more trained and ready to wage war the anytime in the last 40 years.
The misleading stats about "deserters" is such garbage. That statistic is nothing but white noise. People quit all sorts of jobs...(including the military...surprise, surprise). They are doing it no more often today...then ever before.
Bringing up the 82nd is no longer currently taking on the DRF status means squat (other then this guy has no clue what he is talking about). Of course some of the 101st is going to take on the DRF role while the majority of the 82nd combat arms are working OCONUS.
I could go on....but don't have the time currently....But those suggesting our military is near any breaking point are absurd and lying (or spinning for various reasons).
Do we need more soldiers. Yes.
You are right. A most important thing on dealing with Iran is to do it right: Hit selected targets to take out their leadership, military and nuclear facilities. Keep civilian casualties to a minimum to save the many, many pro-American Iranians. Then when the smoke settles, help them. It must be done in a WIN-WIN way for the Administration. Do not allow the Power hungry, America-comes-last leftist crowd to be able to take any credit. Make it a victory showing our moral authority over the left's immorality. A victory of Good over Evil. And RUB it in.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080356/
MSNBC military analysts and experts
Updated: 2:24 p.m. ET Feb 23, 2007
Scroll below to read the biographies MSNBCs military analysts and experts.
COL. KEN ALLARD
Ken Allard is a well-known commentator on international security issues. His military career as an operational intelligence officer included service on the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy as special assistant to the Army Chief of Staff and as dean of students at the National War College. In 1996, he served on special assignment with the U.S. 1st Armored Division in Bosnia. A noted author and lecturer, Allards many publications include two books: Somalia Operations: Lessons Learned and Command, Control and the Common Defense, which won the 1991 National Security Book Award. Allard holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and an M.P.A. from Harvard University.
WILLIAM ARKIN
GEN. WAYNE DOWNING
LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA
Lt Col Rick Francona
DANIEL GOURE
COL. JACK JACOBS
GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY
GEN. MONTGOMERY MEIGS
GEN. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF
Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
Uhhhhhhhh. Instead of "tough, realistic training" they are being shot at with real bullets by real enemy with real blood in a real war zone. Yeah. Sooooo. Sounds like "tough, realistic OJT" to me.
IMHO, Iran is now the key to the post-Saddam situation. If we can destabilize that regime and it falls, the picture completely changes. That would leave Syria the only remaining state supporter of the various terrorist groups in the region and I do not believe they could sustain that alone, cut off from Iranian money and support.
Well, they sent the Army in without armored Humvees. You know, the ones that replaced the armored Jeeps of old.
Oh, wait. The old Jeeps weren't armored. Ah, minor point.
That kind of OJT will kill you when you make a mistake. In training you get a second chance.
I have LONG contended that the Army needs 6 to 8 more combat brigades and the Marines 3 or 4 ... just to cope with the current rotation schedule in Iraq.
If we are going to take on Iran as well, we had better double the entire military.
In war, there are three thing that you are always short of, men, ammo and enemy dead.
There's the problem.
Time to let the Koreans and the Europeans to ante up and protect themselves
I work at an Army post and this article is NOT TRUTH. I am not a military but everything I see is not what this article indicates.
It had to be politically motivated at a time where our president is going through an attack from internal foes, for power pleasure, while we are fighting foes from without.
It is a disgrace what this liberals are doing to this country.....
We must bind together to defeat them in 08, 010!!
!Yo soy el Army!
The Army and Marines are fairly busy. Time for the Navy and Air Force to buff up their combat hardness.
Care to decipher that?
Worn out like a pair of old shoes, I believe was the opening salvo from the murtherer.
I think that's in the works. May be tough to get done in time of war without a draft.
Care to decipher that?
Sure!
Whoever wrote this article, it was for the purpose to discredit the president and anything he is trying to do in Iraq...the target of the liberal writing of this article is to throw another dart to the president and the GOP.
Nobody is sending anyone anywhere "untrained." Not implying that you said that, but the author gives the impression that they're taking recruits, dressing them up, and sending them on patrol in Sadr city the following week with a Petraeus handbook.
The point is, once trained on the basics, which gives a better environment to learn "tough, realistic" training--an Army base, or a real war?
A pilot always has to solo for the first time, eventually.
A high-rise construction worker has to step out on the 34th floor eventually.
Which pilot do you want to fly with? Which construction worker do you want walking near you on a beam?
The one that's been through "tough, realistic" training for a year....or one that's been in the real world for 3 months?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.