For most of the year, Army officials have been complaining that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are chewing up their money, their gear, and their troops. Now, Army chief of staff General Peter Schoomaker has made the loudest, most public plea yet.
As it currently stands, the Army is incapable of generating and sustaining the required forces to wage the Global War on Terror and fulfill all other operational requirements without its components — active, Guard, and Reserve — surging together…
At this pace, without recurrent access to the reserve components, through remobilization, we will break the active component.
As the Washington Post notes, he’s calling for “expanding the [active duty] force by 7,000 or more soldiers a year [to a total of 512,000] and lifting Pentagon restrictions on involuntary call-ups of Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops.”
Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army’s chief of staff, issued his most dire assessment yet of the toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the nation’s main ground force. At one point, he banged his hand on a House committee-room table, saying the continuation of today’s Pentagon policies is “not right.“
In particularly blunt testimony, Schoomaker said the Army began the Iraq war “flat-footed” with a $56 billion equipment shortage and 500,000 fewer soldiers than during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Echoing the warnings from the post-Vietnam War era, when Gen. Edward C. Meyer, then the Army chief of staff, decried the “hollow Army,” Schoomaker said it is critical to make changes now to shore up the force for what he called a long and dangerous war.
Most observers say Schoomaker’s dire forecasts are on the money, and a long time coming. But Spencer Ackerman, for one, says the chief of staff “deserves no praise for the warning he issued yesterday.“
In February, when Rumsfeld had to go to the Hill to refute charges of breaking the Army, he brought Schoomaker along for insulation:
General Schoomaker points out that he remembers what a “broken” Army looks like when he was a young officer… The difference between that Army and the professional and motivated force we have today could not be more dramatic.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t know what Ackerman is talking about – Rumsfeld has kept the Army leadership on a tight leash since he showed up. He should be talking about Schoomaker – a man the Rum-ster brought back from retirement to replace Eric Shinseki – has been openly contradicting his boss since October.
In my opinion, if anything indicated Rumsfeld’s declining power and presaged his ouster, it was Schoomaker’s direct plea to OMB for more money. The Army may be a stubborn organization, but it is the most reluctant of the services to contradict the civilian leadership. When it does, you know something serious is afoot.
There are no immediate or simple solution(s) to increasing troop strength without support of American public and congressional leadership agreement. Army physical and moral recruitment standards have been modified over the past 2 years enabling almost any person to join. The Army has been digging at the bottom of the pickle for new recruits for too long.
I personaly believe that Pentagon staff are making plans to expand conflict with Iran or other nations that support terrorism. Yes, that means a lot more ground troops–immediately.
I forsee only two ways in which enable the Army to meet staffing objectives. First is called– the “Backdraft” which means recalling prior service folks back to Active duty. The next very unpopular method is actual implementaion of the “Draft” for all young Americans from age 18 to 24.
BeyondPopper is far from the truth. first of all the U.S. Army has not been training for the wrong mission for the last thirty years. Ah popper do you rememember something called the “Cold War”, You know the 5000,000 or so soviet troops in in Eastern Europe, very heavily armed I might add, looking west. Well the U.S. Army was one very large reason they didn”t come west. By the way, Popper, that was mainly an armored standoff. The army got that one right. Also your cheap ass remarks about so called professionalism of the troops is lousy. let me tell you something. I have seen more professionalism in the U.S. military than I have in the civilian world. Popper you smack of ignorance in this matter.
I personally think it’s almost inevitable, we’re bound to undergo a prior service recall and may very well see a draft reinstatement. The presadent has already spread our military way too thin to a point we are vulnerable on our own home turf.We deffinatly don’t need to rile any more countries because the road we’re on right now we might end up a country against the world.
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