US Army Still Broken and Getting More Hollow By the Day

Posted by Richard Blair, The All Spin Zone at 12:32 PM on February 26, 2008.

The question is: will a Democratic Party controlled congress do anything about it?

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey went before the Senate Armed Services Committee today, and told them:

"The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance, consumed by the current fight and unable to do the things we know we need to do to properly sustain our all-volunteer force and restore our flexibility for an uncertain future."

This isn't news to anyone who has actually been paying attention. Nearly a year ago, I wrote a long article titled, The Hollow Army. Nothing has changed since then in terms of military readiness to address emerging issues around the world. The bottom line is that the U.S. is so hamstrung in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the military is stretched so thin, that nearly any tinpot dictator can get away with nearly anything around the globe that might otherwise require a military response from the U.S.

It's more than just personnel, too. The Bush administration led America into its Iraq folly nearly five years ago. And the troops that are there still aren't receiving the proper equipment to protect themselves and carry out their mission. FIVE YEARS.

Casualties could have been reduced by half among Marines in Iraq if specially armored vehicles had been deployed more quickly in some cases, a report to the Pentagon says.

Marine Corps spokesman Col. David Lapan said the Defense Department's inspector general wants to investigate the report's claims that bureaucratic delays undermined the program to develop the armored vehicles...

FIVE DAMN YEARS. Maybe if we stay in Iraq for McCain's 100 years, the troops will finally get the equipment they need.

Tagged as: iraq, afghanistan, casey, us army, us military

Richard Blair is the blogmaster of All Spin Zone.