Stretching The Troops In Iraq

[Robbien]

The army has spent much of the past several months, in the words of a senior Army officer, "looking under rocks for every spare soldier" to send to Iraq. It took formal action last week to stretch its troop strength as far as possible. According to the so-called stop-loss order, soldiers will be kept in uniform for an extra three months before and after their units' one-year stint in Iraq or Afghanistan. By unilaterally extending their enlistments by as much as 18 months, the policy will force tens of thousands of soldiers to put personal plans on hold. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry calls it a "back-door draft."

The Army has already taken several steps to stretch the strapped forces. It has kept units in Iraq beyond the one year that the Army originally pledged that they would be there and has tapped into the ranks of reservists and retirees to bulk up the overall Army force from 480,000 to 640,000. Now it wants to send crack units from California's National Training Center and Louisiana's Joint Readiness Training Center to Iraq, which some fear could hurt prewar training at home.

But will these measures be enough to avoid sending still more troops to Iraq? The official line is yes, but privately many senior officers are dubious. "We don't have a strategic reserve anywhere in Iraq," frets a Central Command officer, referring to a lack of U.S. reinforcements in that country. A briefing delivered recently to top U.S. military officers in Iraq put it bluntly: "Inadequate forces if situation deteriorates." U.S. commanders say that if things go south, they can get reinforcements from U.S. bases. "We've got enough here for the 90% probability," a senior Army officer in Baghdad says. It's the other 10% that's keeping some U.S. officers up nights.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040614-646374,00.html

[Wright Patman]

1. I always thought

it would have been cool 10 years ago to "draft" the so-called "unorganized militias" usually of a white separatist bent into the U.S. Armed Forces.

They really couldn't say they were being drafted as their argument was based on some section of the U.S. Code on the basis of which they were volunteering their services.

[DenverDem]

2. We did it.

They are called "contractors".

[NMDemDist2]

3. i read in Slate today that 1/5 of the force in Iraq are contractors

so you can up the "troop"numbers by quite a bit, and we still can't police the country or impose stability and security

sad days indeed

[saigon68]

4. Many of the "Contractors"

Will be attending the Barbacue soon as honored main courses.

[alcuno]

5. 7 of the last 8 KIA in Iraq have been NG.

Volunteer military. Yeah right.

[lebkuchen]

6. The Stripes morale survey was more than correct

Half want out. They can't get out, and now, enlistment quotas have had to be lowered to meet expectations.

Bush will be damned before he starts a draft before the election. Our deployed troops are in trouble. They have no leadership.

[cliss]

7. Isn't it ironic: they host a war, and there's no one to fight it.

Well, they've hosted 2 wars. But they've got lots of plans. There is no doubt that these guys are planning to put their World Domination Scenario into effect soon.

The way I see it, there are only 2 things that can stop them from doing it: lack of money and lack of men. Of the 2, lack of money is the most critical. Wily Old Rumsfeld thought he was so clever: he doesn't have enough of a military to rule the world (after all, the US only represents 4.6% of the world's population - there's a stretch for you). But you can't blame the old guy for tying.

So what does he do? He goes and hires himself an army. BlackWater, CACI, Titan and other mercenary and contingency contractors.

However, that sly move will be his undoing. He got his mercenary army all right, but look at how much it's costing him. He's already drained the treasury of $192 billion and we've only been at it for a year.

Even if they reinstated the draft, hosting wars is incredibly costly and draining to a country. Think of all the young people, killed in battle while our country is 'greying' we won't have as many young people to support all these baby boomers who are going to retire and will need young people to help fund Social Security and Medicare.

An article on CounterPunch said this administration carries the seeds of its own destruction. And I believe it will be financial.

Remember Russia. That country imploded because it spent all its money on military arsenal, while cutting social programs.

[AndyTiedye]

9. They're Destroying Our Country, Not Themselves

> this administration carries the seeds of its own destruction. And I believe it will be financial.

Something's getting destroyed all right,
but it is our country,
not the regime, unfortunately.

[geronimo]

8. “Stressed US Army desperate for warm bodies”

I currently am an IRR soldier (done with active duty, but still remain "on-call") recently received a call/letter from a retention Sgt, stating that I am on a list to be called into active duty. He goes on further and advises that I should re-up so that i may choose a unit before I am involuntary transfered to a front line unit.

however after some searching online, I came across a few interesting articles...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/stop-j04.shtml

http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/9_22/national_news/29309-1.html

last step before a draft? your thoughts?

[AndyTiedye]

10. They have been pulling that stunt all over

So blatantly that the Army has had to let people out of the re-uppage
they had signed up for under that kind of pressure.