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Fodder Shortage

Chimpy isburning through the regular Army with little regard to the consequences.

Strains on the Army from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become so severe that Army officials say they may be forced to make greater use of the National Guard to provide enough troops for overseas deployments.

[snip]

The question of how to sustain the high level of forces abroad became more acute this week as General John P. Abizaid, the senior American commander in the Middle East, said that the number of troops in Iraq, currently at more than 140,000, could not be expected to drop until next spring at the very earliest.

That disclosure comes amid many signs of mounting strain on active Army units. So many are deployed or only recently returned from combat duty that only two or three combat brigades — perhaps 7,000 to 10,000 troops — are fully ready to respond in case of unexpected crises, according to a senior Army general.

An internal Army document that was provided to The New York Times notes that the demand for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has greatly exceeded past projections that predicted earlier troop reductions. According to the document, the Army needs $66.1 billion to make up for all of its equipment shortfalls. Referring to the units that are to deploy next to Iraq and Afghanistan, or are in training, the document shows a large question mark to indicate their limited readiness.

8 thoughts on “Fodder Shortage”

  2. No one is ever going to accuse me of being a friend to the military, but even I have to ask:
    Isn’t this just a little unfair / askew?
    The Army says it is strained and is going to have to dig down into the guard. But they didn’t say anything about the Guard being already strained with Guard units pulling multiple tours of Iraq – so what part of the Guard are they going to dig down into?
    Meanwile the guard is running commercials about how you get to go to college while serving your country (just don’t mention that the “college” is called “Iraq” and IEDs are blowing you up). People are seeing through this ploy making recruitment harder. Those who are leaving the military are questioning the wisdom of signing up for the “easy money” of the reserves.

  4. True, with 8 days to spare. But notice how they had to expand it to let in older folks, folks with shall we say “dodgier” pasts, folks with lower test scores, etc.
    Also looking on it statistically, after a downward trend and last year being one of the worst years theyve ever had, you need to look at the averaged trend. To oversimplify, last year was bad, this year the met but didn’t exceed, on the average they’re still below – and it took loosening the standards to do so.

  6. The cashier at Starbucks today was missing one hand. He was in his 20’s, and I can only guess an Iraq veteran. He was not smiling.

  7. Time to enlist the 101st Fighting Keyboarders in the Glorious Struggle! They can take Jenna and NotJenna, while they’re at it, and George Pee Bush. He looks enough like an Iraqi that he can blend in and be shot be friendly fire, so bonus!
    —Aaaargh

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