Pentagon Drops Plan to Cut National Guard Strength

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON — In the face of bipartisan opposition at the state and national levels, the Pentagon backed away Thursday from a plan to reduce the overall size of the Army National Guard.

The Army said the Guard would remain at 350,000 troops, instead of being reduced to 333,000 as part of a Defense Department budget-cutting plan.

The National Governors Assn., a number of individual governors and 77 U.S. senators had protested the initial plan for Guard cuts.

Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's top officer, brushed aside critics of the plan, who had warned that it was ill-advised at a time of war and with the need to respond to natural disasters such as the hurricanes that struck the Gulf Coast last summer.
....
Under the revised plan, the Army will replace combat brigades with support brigades, though some could be slightly smaller, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, the association's president.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guard3feb03,0,4831609.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

[wicket]

1. Bush is such a miserable failure

n/t

[Canuckistanian]

2. They really have no clue what they're doing, do they?

Rumsfailed has lost it, totally.

He's just floundering around, throwing stuff at walls and seeing what sticks.

[neverforget]

5. They know exactly what they're doing: enriching their corporate

buddies with weapon systems we don't and can't afford while using coporations to provide more services that the soldiers used to provide and moving them into combat slots.

[rodeodance]

3. trying to take away from what Governors have--was not a good idea Rummy

[DeepModem Mom]

4. kick

[Mnemosyne]

6. .

[Pachamama]

7. Flip flop...

:eyes:

Do these people stay true to their words? Even their lies?

[lebkuchen]

8. Stripes headline just the other day....

Bush to propose cuts in fighter plane production, Army Reserve

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=33800&archive=true

President Bush will use his new budget to propose cutting the size of the Army Reserve to its lowest level in three decades and stripping up to $4 billion from two fighter aircraft programs.

[wordpix2]

9. looks like Rummy didn't win this time---good news