Posted on 03/19/2008 8:47:50 AM PDT by LoneStarGI
There are soldiers who have deployed 5 times in the past eight years. (Macedonia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, OIF 1, OIF 2.) The current deployment schedule is 15 months downrange, 1 year at home - 2 months of which are either debrief or windup for the next deployment. That's not an easy optempo to maintain. Soldiers are seeing the strain in their families.
That is not happening because in order to replace old equipment, money must be takened from R&D programs of future equipment which will impact the fielding of next gen weapon systems. The program managers and their corporate contractors are lobbying hard against such moves. Thus procurement of replacement equipment is gummed up in a bureacratic infighting between the future weapons programs with the logistical replacements. Defense contractors are heavilly involved because high price high tech development may be delayed or cut back in deference to the less sexier and lower cost replacement programs.
Imagine that. ;o)
I agree. Foreign policy should be based on force capability. Having a small army and a Wilsonian foreign policy (let us change the world) is incompatible. Neocons and some freepers think the US should use their hyper super power status to make countries democratic. Problem is tyrants will react even to our attempts of using soft power (economics and culture) to chase them out of power. Tyrants will respond with assymmetric warfare, homegrown nuclear weapons programs, or support anti US countries or movements. That means at worst we may need to respond with military force. The world is full of imperfect nations with oppressed peoples, and trying to help them all is noble, but if our military force is too small, and our country is deep in debt, one cannot implement such a Wilsonian foreign policy. The only thing good about the Iraq war and Afghanistan war is it has discredited the neocon crusaders and forced GWB to have a more realistic assessment of US capabilities and power. Maybe that will usher a period of the US concentrating on issues at home and provide a period of peace and noninvolvement so the US can reconstitute their own fincancial situation to re emerge in the future. In the mean time let the world experience what life would be like if the US is not around to help them.
Don't forget the NCOs and specialists
The battle-experienced professionals we are creating now, will be the ones that will be called upon to win the next war, the one that is brewing with China
Thank you for the helpful information.
It’s encouraging to see something written about this that doesn’t come from the far left and has actual facts presented.
I would ping Fat Jack Murtha to this piece but it’s doubtful the bumbling old fool can use a computer and even if he can he’s probably on a fact finding trip to Okinawa studying for a redeployment of our military.
With all due respect, thats a moronic idea.
Yes, the optempo is a killer. The army needs to be about 8 divisions bigger than it is.
Despite everyones wishful thinking we can not continue on this course. You can't keep deploying troops nor equipment without allowing for substantial downtime. If you do you shorten their use life.
Case in point happened in Gulf War One. Cheney and the Pentagon along with congress cut corners on maintenance and we lost a carrier that should just now be nearing it's end of service life. It was lost for several reasons. It was over deployed, it was not allowed proper maintenance downtime not once but several times in a row. It was denied a life extension overhaul. Simply put it went Boom at the pier. All this occurred mostly under Republicans except the last deployment a third in three years and the explosion.
You can not win wars by downsizing. Building a new Iraq is not a Constitutional function of our military or government. It is an abuse of such and should not be allowed by anyones party. Either destroy the nation or bring our troops home. If people want a rebuilt Iraq fine. Send Jimmy Carter there to do it on his dime not mine. As such congress has no authority to nation build nor use troops or taxpayer funds to do so.
The military is to provide for our common defenses. It should not be an extension or enforcing arm of the United Nations nor should congress base use of for ce on such. It should never be used for the purposes being used in Iraq.
For our own national good we need to abandon the Wilson Doctrines which is rampant in the GOP and return to the sound military readiness policies of Reagan instead. When not if but WHEN we get hit by a major strike ala Pearl Harbor at this point we will likely not recover defense wise because we have not only shuttered but leveled our defense production capabilities and outsourced them overseas in a lot of cases. To think that such will never happen again is arrogance. To not plan for it is foolishness. To rely on foreign nations for production of goods for national defense is national suicide. We are on the very edge of our capabilities and resources. They are working because they are the finest we have. Even the finest machine though is subject to wear and wise usage must be the rule.
Make enlistments 6 years maximum obligation especially first enlistment. That is plenty of time. Restore the original GI BIll. Limit overseas deployments to 18 months per four years served. Build a military and man it to make such a reality except in a period of war actually declared by congress not including Authorizations for use of force which should not be permitted excepted as specified in the Constitution meaning Letter of Marque and / or reprisals. Bring some needed Constitutional discipline back to congress. Our troops deserve at least this much from us.
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