Free Republic

How many ground troops does the United States need? Answering that question depends on your vision of the future -- specifically, the military challenges the United States will face over the next 10 to 15 years. An "old future" provides some perspective on the current debate over U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps "end strength" (Pentagonese for the number of active duty personnel authorized by Congress). Let's return to 1990, just before Saddam invaded Kuwait. The U.S. Army had around 750,000 soldiers on active duty; the U.S. Marine Corps had 197,000 Marines. That same year, the U.S. population broke 250...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2007 – President Bush’s plan to send additional forces to Iraq and to increase the military end strength sends an important message to the troops, the defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Senate Armed Services Committee today. U.S. military commanders on the ground asked for and support the plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq to help stabilize the country, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told committee members. “(Our commanders) have asked for additional forces and are happy to have additional...

The Army will grow to 510,000 soldiers over the next four years as a temporary measure, a senior Army official said today. The official briefed the press on background after Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker told Congress Jan. 28 that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has authorized the Army to exceed end strength limits by 30,000. The increase is allowed under emergency authorities Congress granted the Defense Department. "One of the advantages of being an Army at war is that war focuses us," said the senior Army official. The focus gives the Army the opportunity to rebalance and...