Army National Guard, Reserves dwindling

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.news-leader.com/today/0125-ArmyNation-286845.html

Washington — At the current pace of U.S. deployments to Iraq, the Pentagon may be hard pressed by next year to provide enough reserve combat troops suitable for the mission, judging from the military services' own estimates of available manpower.

The notion of running out of reserve troops would have been dismissed only a year ago, but the strain of fighting a longer, harder war than U.S. commanders foresaw is taking a heavy toll on part-time troops of the Army National Guard, Army Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve.

The problem may ease if, as the Bush administration hopes, security in Iraq improves substantially this year.

Of the 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now, nearly 50 percent are from the Guard and Reserve.

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[nadinbrzezinski]

1. This notion woudl be dismised a year ago

exactly where?

Damn we have been predicting this for what a year now?

DU take a bow...

[rainbow4321]

2. Nat'l Guard Bureau chief says problem wasn't in his "crystal ball"

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NATIONAL_GUARD?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters Tuesday that the Guard is 15,000 soldiers below its normal strength of 350,000, and he expects further short-term declines despite recent gains from tripling re-enlistment bonuses for Guardsmen deployed abroad.


"I did not envision being in Iraq in 2005 with 44 percent of the (total Army) combat forces," he said. "That was not in my wildest scenario on the crystal ball that I was looking at."

[njdemocrat106]

3. Is it just me, or...

is it getting a little drafty in here? I hope it's just me. :(

[hadrons]

4. "as the Bush administration hopes ...."

at what point will these shitheads get it??? Oh yeah, never