Senior Army Officials: US Readiness Dangerously Low

Washington Post:

Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders said yesterday that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years.

In a stark assessment a week before Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is to testify on the war's progress, Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, said that the heavy deployments are inflicting "incredible stress" on soldiers and families and that they pose "a significant risk" to the nation's all-volunteer military.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[gcallaghan]

Republicans = Military Failure

[alaintex]

Military personnel might not agree.

While recent polls show that roughly one-third of the public considers itself Republican, 57 percent of the active-duty military identified themselves with that party – with two-thirds of officers, compared to 49 percent of enlisted personnel, checking the Republican box.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Republican philosophy may still have fans, and disproportionately so in the military.
Republican POLICY is a proven FAILURE.

Our Founding Fathers wisely took foreign policy away from the military. Their wisdom is everlasting.

[waynesmyer]

When you poll the Army, you only talk to the officers! enlisted troops are not allowed to be polled, but damn, , they do get 14 month repeated tours (up to five, now) All officers are REPUKES, by order of Dick (fives times deferred) Cheney , our truly "vice" War Profitnator
and Chicker Hawk Hero
BOMB THEM ALL ALL AND LET DICK CHENEY SORT THEM OUT! attributed to Johnny "Ride The Bomb" McCain, your next beloved War Presinator

[peterg76]

One word: oil.

[CommieKazi]

three words- thats a lie

[EJ99]

Of course it is. And War is actually Peace ... Iraq has WMD ... it'll be a cakewalk ... opening with welcome arms ... and DEFINITELY not about oil. Did I cover them all?

[NotWaldo]

One word : incompetence!

[alfrede]

Hi,

Do U think the President and Vice President really care about this???

It appears they only care about "serving" out the rest of their term w/o everything imploding.

What do U think??

[mamacat]

I guess saying that the Army is "stressed" is about as far out on a limb as the Generals are willing to go towards telling Bush that he's made a mistake.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

... or warn the public that Iran is a no-go.

[markusmarkus]

Haven't you heard - we're just goin' to bomb Iran. John McBomb sez so!

[bushmocker]

After Katrina we got a taste of what would happen in an emergency at home.That was without an enemy or some environmental disaster like radiation or poisoned water to deal with.When the wildfires struck last year affecting the mostly white and wealthy,there was plenty of money to throw around while the people of New Orleans are still waiting for relief.In Iraq,Instead of working towards a peaceful solution the focus was on oil sharing arrangemen­ts,buildin­g an embassy larger than a lot of cities.We still have a portion of inbred America that still agrees with Bush and needs to be sidelined ASAP for the sole purpose of pulling our troops out of Iraq and rebuilding our armed forces and National Guard.Our children didn't volunteer for a fools errand and we didn't expect to be paying the corruption plaqued vultures at Blackwater or Halliburton who knowingly delivered polluted(untested) water to our troops,not just once,but for years.This insidious never ending list of criminal acts perpetrated on Americans is public knowledge,yet no one is held accountable,why not?

[CommieKazi]

go talk to schoolbus nagin
couldnt even get homeless out of NO
but its bushs fault!!

[BigFootJesus]

The buck stops there.

[ProfessorDuh]

Why not? Because the thieves are running the government. Eisenhower called it the "military-­industrial complex." I call it "kleptocracy."
Only impeachment could have saved us, but the Democrats were too cowardly and venal to rescue the American republic.

[ProfessorDuh]

Little Lord Narcissist's life is just one long trail of broken and abandoned toys bought for him by Daddy and Daddy's Saudi pals. The US military is just one more.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

What happens when you don't impeach unruly children.

[CommieKazi]

its time to take $ out of idiot welfare programs
and put more into recruiting soldiers
maybe dems will get on board then and stop fighting the USA
coulda won ths thing by now if they werent such jackasses

[Montanamotor]

Oh, yeah - and you won Vietnam, too!

[CommieKazi]

no but the dem leghumpers lost it for us

[NotWaldo]

DummyKazi!
What's the biggest problem with the idea of intelligent design?
It doesn't explain why Republicans are made.

[CommieKazi]

republicans are made to clean up messes that dem leghumpers make
like billy ignorin jihad boys thru 90s, waitin for next guy to clean up his mess
oops 911

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Please don't feed the troll.

The issue is that the REPUKES have started an unending war, paid for with a credit card.

[markusmarkus]

Wow! What a great idea. Let's pour more hard-earned Chinese loans into the bottomless pit call the "military." CK, your comment stretches the envelope of stupidity. But, hey, it's a free country, anyone like you can parade their graspless view of reality for the whole word to see. You're a putz.

[waynesmyer]

"I did not make a gaffe! why! I don't even know what a gaffe looks like" Johnny "Ride The Bomb" McCain
BOMB! BOMB! BOMB! IRAN! uh! IRAQ? Damn, I forgot!

[fuzzwald]

Our military readiness is dangerously low??????? Why, that's IMPOSSIBLE! I just heard on Focksnooze the other week that the military is as plucky and ready as ever! Morale is great! I saw it right there on the teevee!

What do those liberal generals know, anyway?

[sparkey]

With all our military overseas and our private weapons being confiscated, we don't have much of a defense against the terrorists coming across the southern border. I think this is what the powers behind Cheney and his puppet want. One nation from three nations. Make the countries go broke from high prices and then combine the three countries and bring down the prices. A lot of people will go along with it.. As for this war, it started in the early 80's. I was in the air force at that time. I saw equipment coming in painted olive drab late at night and leaving before dawn painted desert tan. The paint wasn't dry when it left. I know, because I helped load them on the planes. That's when I decided to get out. If I had stayed in, I would have been in Iraq now.

[alaintex]

With all our military overseas?

100k to 130k is about 5%.

As of April 2007, about 1,426,700 people are on active duty in the military with an additional 1,458,500 people in the seven reserve components.

Good thing you got out.

[CommieKazi]

they dont care
just like the 650k dead iraqis lie
next week itll be 800k
if they repeat it enough it becomes 'truth'

[sparkandy]

My boyfriend was an air traffic controller with the Navy a few years after that, and he said the same thing - that the planning for a war in the ME had been going on for a long time. He saw some stuff that made him suspicous and started thinking. I guess this administration is just doing what previous administrations had been planning all along. It's still an illegal war.

[Ping]

The Army is broken.

[LOL123]

The army is fine, it's the Government ruling the Army that's broken.
The whole premise was that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and we were sold on this "war on Terror"theme-In 1998, the then US president, Bill Clinton, approved a plan to spend almost $100m to help the Iraqi opposition - principally the INC - to topple Saddam. BBC news-Ahmed Chalabi provided the intelligence people with faulty information-fact. Hunt oil in Texas signed an exploration contract before the oil law was/is put in effect:the US commercial officer in Iraq said Hunt Oil was "smart " for becoming the first US oil company to sign a high-
profile exploration and production deal in Iraq, even though the deal was with the KRG.
concerns
about security will be a powerful deterrent to potential partners.
Ft.com= it's about oil, lets get out and let dept. of commerce and private companies provide the security. Clinton is the one who encouraged and helped pay for the Iraqi war, Bush continued with the charade.

[Montanamotor]

Why not confiscate all of GWB's private present and future assets, to compensate for at least SOME of the damage he's done?

Give the money to Walter Reed-Hospital and to veterans' and veterans' families' care.

That'll teach Bush and his successors how to tread the members of the US-forces properly.

[Uselessboy]

No biggie, the Holy Air Force is ready to bomb-bomb-bomb Iran, and that's what really counts.

[markusmarkus]

And, John McBommb will be in the lead F-4 Phantom. Ooops, they Air Force doesn't fly Phantoms any more? They're retired to the scrape heap. So should be John McBomb.

[totalliberal]

The Republicans are losing the war on terrorism. Way to go Republicans.

[markusmarkus]

But the wealth rethug$ just keep getting richer. Thanks Georgie boy!

[irishgawdess]

"We don' need our stinkin' jobs!" say Cody and Magnus.

See ya!

[iPolitics]

Iraq should have built a fence around their country to keep the illegal immigrants out.

[Observer1]

People call Bush delusional. Most Americans are underread, uninformed and yes delusional. These delusions of grandeur, of being responsible for the world, of knowing what is right for other people , they are all just delusions.
Imagine the money spent on war and the military complex. This is all just to keep the delusion alive, that Americans are the most superior in the world.

But if you put yourself on a pedestal, the world will expect you to feed and protect them, yes, you have made your bed, now lie in it.

Bring back the draft and go save the world from the arrogance of America.

[kardwell]

Nice

[SonofLiberty1]

And someone should ask the senior military official if he has always been this bright or if it's just a new thing:)

Seriously, we all...or many of us...know this.

Except for Georg W. Bush!