[KantianBurke]

For further discussion:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1697034/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1708307/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1565370/posts

[jwalsh07]

The "peace dividend" ain't paying dividneds any more. We need 5 more divisions. Period. End of story. The democrats and Americans want to sacrifice? Well they can sacrifice by paying the Regular Army guys with good wages and a return to the old GI bill and by cutting spending on illegals and shirkers.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Speaking to reporters afterward, Schoomaker said Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, is looking at several military options for the war, including shifting many troops from combat missions to training Iraqi units.

We can have none of that. That was a recommendation from the ISG. The cheerleaders will be along promptly to thrash anyone that dares to give merit or credence to such a preposterous idea.

[onedoug]

It's not the fighting capability of the American warfighter;
it's what the warfighter is given the latitude to do.

[xzins]

The army should be a minimum of 5 divisions bigger (100,000 troops + tail).

If we had about a 775,000 man army with 18 divisions, and we have a 450,000 man army with 10 divisions, then the math says tooth + tail should be in the neighborhood of 650,000 troops.

[Steel Wolf]

"Over the last five years, the sustained strategic demand ... is placing a strain on the Army's all-volunteer force," Schoomaker told the commission in a Capitol Hill hearing. ... "At this pace ... we will break the active component" unless more reserves can be called up to help, Schoomaker said in prepared remarks.

The only real surprise here is the public statement of what many already knew. The military, and the Army in particular, is too small to effectively attain U.S. foreign policy goals.

So, what are we going to do about it? The military is already lowering standards to meet mission, and offering reenlistment bonuses in the tens of thousands of dollars. How are we going to field large new units? Are we ready to really look at what's hurting retention and recruitment? Are we ready to fix the horribly malfunctioning military HR system?

It's a lot more complicated than just asking for more troops, but that's the vital first step. It's good that we're finally here. But the fight to make it happen will be uphill all the way, unless we're ready to fight the bureaucracy and make much needed changes.

[SkyPilot]

Everyone (including Gen. Schoomaker) are forgetting one little thing:

The American voters, in their infinite wisdom, handed control of Congress and the purse strings to the DEMOCRATS.

The military is not their favorite group - period.

Oh, we all can expect money to spent like crazy, but one abortion mills, AIDS funding, payoffs to union thugs, and trial lawyers.

The military will get platitudes - that is about it.

[91B]

Rummy and company were convinced that air power was going to make grunts obsolescent. While I think that the change to Brigade Combat Teams "reshuffles" the deck so that we have more combat power it just isn't enough. We need at least 100,000 more troops in the active Army, but getting them will be tough. This is to say nothing of how the reserve forces have been mismanaged, not that we shouldn't have been used, but that we haven't gotten the most bang for our buck from due to not using up the available mobilization time that reservists are limited to without full mobilization (reservists are limited to 2 years out of every five, but as most units have done 15 or 16 month rotations, they can't be mobilized again until the "window" closes).

We also need to preserve the force we have in the Guard, but there are plans afoot to cut several brigades in the Guard-which I think would be a huge mistake. Of course this will be expensive-and the defense budget is way too low-but I don't expect the Dems to pony up.

[HitmanLV]

Over There, Over There
Send the word, send the word,
Over There
That the Yanks are coming,
The Yanks are coming,
The drums rum tumming everywhere
So prepare,
Say a Prayer
Send the word,
Send the word to beware
We'll be over, we're coming over.
And we won't be back till it's over over there!

[Tailback]

Pull all of the US Military units out of Germany except for a couple Air Force units, Landstuhl medical center, and pre-positioning units.

Pull Most troops out of South Korea, leave the Air Force and pre-positioning units. South Korea has a large standing army, with help from our Air Force and Navy North Korea isn't going to do anything.

Pull every single US military member out of the Balkans.

Voila! No more military shortage.

[AlaskaErik]

The problem isn't the number of troops, it's the grunt/REMF ratio that's all out of whack. In Iraq, the grunt/REMF ratio is as high as 1:70. That's 70 freakin' REMFs for every grunt that goes outside the wire. That's just totally unacceptable. A more appropriate ratio is 1:14. Here at Bagram AB, Afghanistan you can't help but trip over all the army guys on base every day. I don't even go to lunch because the lines are so long even with a 2.5 hour window. I don't know what they all do, but they certainly don't seem to go outside the wire. The army needs to streamline its operations so a greater proportion of the force is actual infantry.

[familyop]

The more relevant question is, "Does Schoomaker want to continue allowing Iran to dish it out to Iraq?" Or would he like to do what General Patton would have done (put down the growing Iranian source of problems)?

[goodnesswins]

It's not the divisions that are needed....it's the balls to let them FIGHT THE WAR in a NORMAL manner.....kill people, break things!

[El Gato]

"At this pace ... we will break the active component" unless more reserves can be called up to help, Schoomaker said in prepared remarks.

And if you call up reserves at higher pace, you'll break the reserves too. Some have already been called up for year long deployments, sometimes less, sometimes more, more than once.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

What difference does it make if we send 100,000 or 200,000 more troops to the field to be target practice for muslims. If we aren't going top dominate them, we need to get out.

[drellberg]

I have a question. Bit of a change of subject but relevant, I think. President Bush this week said that 5900 insurgents have been killed or captured in Iraq over 2 months. Assuming this number is not an abberation, and doing some back of the envelope calculations, it's hard to extrapolate such that the US has not killed or captured at least 250,000 of the enemy just in Iraq before the US could ever withdraw. If I include Afghanistan, Lebanon, revenge killings within Iraq, etc., it's quite easy to conjure up body counts exceeding 500,000, from 2002 through 2008.

I'm a lone conservative in a family, town, and state filled with libs. I never see the MSM report on our progress. I know body counts are an imprecise measure. But I don't know what other metrics to use. Still, I figure that this is a war of attrition that we can't "win" in any conventional way, at least as long as we don't invade Iran, Pakistan, etc. But I'm at a loss to understand why everyone at this point -- everyone -- considers this military effort a debacle. And I don't understand how the bad guys can sustain these kind of losses indefinitely.

You folks all seem so knowledgeable. Maybe you can help me understand ... why is this effort such a loss?

[Prost1]

Charlie Rangle has it right.

Reinstate the draft! Make it mandatory for all men and women 18 years to serve. No 4fers or similar dis-qualifiers.

Make them serve. Serving develops civic pride or hatred. But it develops usually a motivated political individual. That is what makes republics secure. People who understand and support their government.

We cannot continue with 40% turn-out dictating the government for the rest of the USA.

We need the draft. All must serve in some capacity! Not just as Monikas but as civil servants and soldiers.

Just my thoughts...