CBS: One more sign of how 'thinly stretched' Army is now

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Raw Story

CBS News reported Sunday that the final members of the 82nd Airborne are about to leave Fort Bragg for Iraq, saying, "This is only going to be to be the second time since World War II that the entire 82nd Airborne will be deployed overseas. Just one more sign of how thinly stretched the Army is right now."

The report continues, "Commanders say if an emergency happened elsewhere in the world, they could draw ground troops from Iraq and units recuperating at bases back in the U.S. But it won't be easy" because neither equipment nor personnel on leave would be immediately available. As a result, there are concerns about the ability of the military to respond to a crisis.

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RUSS MITCHELL: And good evening, once again the battle for Iraq is striking close to home ear in the U.S. With repercussions that could be feld around the world. The 82nd Airborne are packing up to leave Ft. Bragg for duty in Iraq. Joie chen is in washington with more on the deployment and the strain on the Pentagon's manpower. Joie, good evening.

REPORTER: Good evening, russ. This is only going to be to be the second time since world war that the entire 82nd Airborne will be deployed overseas. Just one more sign of how thinly stretched the arm see right now. Tonight what's left of the 82nd Airborne flies to Kuwait on its way to Iraq for a one-year tour. For decades the 82nd Airborne has been the go-to team in a time of crisis. But now they are all deployed. The surge is in full swing, but some worry its demands could be draining America's ability to respond to a crisis.





Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Stressed_troops_to_be_pulled_from_0611.html

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Isn't the 82nd a big component of the quick reactionary force ready to deploy overseas at a moment's notice to a crisis?

[Rydz777]

1. Bush has virtually wrecked our ground forces in his disastrous

adventure, worn down the troops (both Army and Marines) and worn out their equipment. They are already stretched so thin that both Navy and Air Force personnel are being assigned in Iraq into what are essentially infantry MOS. There should be a sense of urgency to stop this war and bring our people home NOW.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Which is exactly what bush and cheney want. Remember, on 9-11 they had everyone tied up

busy with other stuff, and they'd recently changed the rules so it was harder to get planes off the ground... now they've got our troops so tied up that their first response to any crisis will have to be nuclear.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Don't worry, I will be perfectly comfortable on my record-setting vacations" - Commander AWOL

"There's no cause for concern, because I am definitely not going to serve anywhere at any time
Oh yeah, too bad about YOUR sons and daughters in uniform and stuff like that
Smirk, Smirk, Smirk"

- Commander AWOL

[daleo]

4. I wonder about an attack on Iran

Having the entire 82nd division near Iran might be a tip-off. It seems hard to believe that Bush would be that stupid. But who can say for sure?

[reprobate]

5. Even if all out troops were on the border with Iran, they'd still face horrible odds

Iran has a huge and well armed military. In a head to head encounter our forces could easily be overwhelmed quickly. Especially with our equipment frazzled as it is after four years of war.

[Socal31]

11. Ummm.........

Id like to see what you are basing that off of.


Although I hope everyday that it will NEVER happen, I am also realistic. We have the country surrounded. We have 2 Carrier groups in the region. Iraq's piss-poor army held Iran to a stalemate. We trampled Iraq with ease.


See where I am going with this. "Easily overwhelmed quickly?" I doubt it.


On a side note, who cares what would happen. All of our troops should be at home, going to their favorite bar this Saturday night, not worrying about who they are going to have to take on next.

[tabasco]

12. All of the ground forces in Iraq are decisively engaged in the "surge."

What army is going to attack Iran?

Sure, we can bomb the hell out of Iran, but if we commit ground troops into the vast mountainous terrain of Iran, it would be another unwinnable quagmire for the US military. I am a former Army officer with years of planning experience. With the current state of our military, it would be insane to invade Iran. Our rear areas would be unsecure, and US forces would be the ones who would find themselves surrounded. This is the price we pay for needlessly occupying Iraq.

If it was a total war between Iran and the US, we could defeat their military, with a draft, war economy, etc. But that's not the situation. An occupation after a war with Iran would be another awful quagmire, requiring MILLIONS of troops.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. Not to mention that Russia, China, Syria and some others will

come down on the side of Iran in this hypothetical conflict. Won't be pretty, and dare I say, the beginning of WW III.

[maddezmom]

6. just in time for hurricane season

:eyes:

[youngdem]

8. What does that have to do with anything?

The 82nd Airborne isn't the National Guard.


:shrug:

[Pastiche423]

9. Because a majority (at least in my state) of the National Guard

is in Iraq, leaving no one to help out in an emergency.

[youngdem]

15. Again, the 82nd IS IN THE ARMY, NOT IN THE NATIONAL GUARD

The army cannot be deployed in an emergency domestically. The National Guard can. Soooooo, it doesn't matter if with regard to hurricane preparedness if they deploy the entire 82nd Airborne.

The National Guard and the Army are NOT interchangeable.

[Pastiche423]

17. I never said it was

[youngdem]

19. Then what in the hell does that have to do with domestic emergency preparedness?

:shrug:

If you know the 82nd doesn't help in emergencies, how does them being deployed impact hurricane readiness?

[Supersedeas]

7. crisis schmisis -- Fratboy has a legacy to attend to.

[DemoTex]

10. I guess "DEROS" is no longer in the lexicon.

Date
Estimated (to)
Return (from)
Over-
Seas

One's DEROS was sacrosanct in Viet Nam. It was the end of the tour-of-duty. The hard-stop. Very little could extend your DEROS involuntarily. A day or two before DEROS, you stopped what you were doing (over a week in my case), drank a lot, packed your shit, out-processed, and caught the Freedom Bird to The World.

God, Iraq-nam sucks.


Crossing the Rubicon (ca. March 2003)

[cliss]

13. Some shocking figures -

from Icasualties.org.

Up until most recently, we had about 135,000 US troops in Iraq. Of those, we now have 3,512 dead.

Just as bad: we have total wounded of 34,650. Now, I'm not sure how many of those are incapacitated or unable to go back to work. But if we add those together,

3,512 +
34,650 = around 28%

THIS is truly unsustainable. We can't keep losing that many troops, cuz we're running out.

[NeedleCast]

16. Don't know if this is the case but

sometimes those "wounded" numbers are radically inflated. When I was in Afghanistan, a PFC in the unit I was primarily attached to got his pinky finger closed in a hummer door. He was listed as "wounded." A band-aid was applied to his finger and he was returned to normal duty.

[Orsino]

18. Turning the proud 82nd into "legs"...

...and destroying their pride along with their readiness, all to prop up *'s ego and the dreams of the neocons.