Hey, wait a minute. This morass is not Bill Clinton’s fault. Cohen was a damn good SecDef and DoD was well run and effective. I’m not Clinton devotee, but the truth is the truth and that allegation is ass-backwards. The force was in fairly good shape to carry out the National Strategic Plan after the Bush I creation of the two-war concept. If there’s anything at which the Clinton administration failed, it was the understanding of logistics and the need to keep resupply depots stocked with spare parts. Otherwise, the fielded force was well trained, properly led and efficient. Please keep ideology out of the equation pre-2000. This 100% GWB’s war, no one else’s.
No it wasnt.
If you'll recall through the '90s we went from: "Have the ability to fight and win two wars simultaneously"
to
"Have the ability to fight and win two wars very nearly simultaneously."
to
"Have the ability to fight and win one war and delay one regional conflict simultaneously."
to
"Have the ability to fight one war and one regional conflict very nearly simultaneously."
That was the force GW Bush got when he entered the oval office.
I watched as the Army was cut in half.
As far as the Iraq "morass", would you have preferred that we had enforced the sanctions and no-fly-zone indefinitely?
At what point would policing the No-fly-zones and enforcing the sanctions cost as much as a war?
Your kidding right.
Lets see the Clinton years when tanks were only allowed to drive so many miles a year.
You realize that Clinton took out a fourth of the army firepower. Let me explain, yes under Bush I the army went from 18 to 10 divisions. Now let me explain the Clinton cuts. An armor battalion had 4 companies of 14 tanks and two in the battalion for a total of 58 tanks. I think in 94-95, all armor battalions dropped a company so the battalion had 46 tanks. All the associated people who supported this company were also dropped, the battalion commo, maintenance and commo section and also the Direct Support sections from the Forward Support Battalions.
Those outside the army didn’t notice since there were still 10 divisions.
I never did understand how “Just in Time Logistics” was suppose to work during a war.
The debacle of the ‘90s was the fault of Bush 41, Clinton and Congress, all of whom were only too happy to spend the “peace dividend” (har, har) buying votes. I survived the Clinton purges and left the Navy on my own terms, but I know one, count ‘em, one officer still on active duty from those days. A lot of really good, really smart, really dedicated people got the shaft because the Berlin Wall had fallen and that meant the world was suddenly a safe place and everybody loved us, right? A lot of other really good, really smart and really dedicated people got fed up with the politics and the BS and left.
Rumsfeld was right when he said, “You go to war with the military you’ve got.” But the corollary to that is, “You have the obligation to fight the war your military is trained, equipped and ready to fight.” THAT’S where I fault Bush 43. The military is designed to kill people and break things, as Rush so aptly puts it, not win hearts and minds, establish democracies, and, oh, by the way, not do any collateral damage while they’re at it.
This administration either forgot that or never knew it. Either way, they’re reaping the harvest now.