Another "Kerry was right" moment - Bush orders expansion of the military.

[Mass]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0612200212dec20,1,2187897.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

WASHINGTON -- President Bush acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said

As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has adopted the formula advanced by his top military
...






Democrats have been calling for additional troops for years. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) proposed an increase of 40,000 troops during his 2004 campaign against Bush, and that idea was dismissed by the administration.

[beachmom]

1. That was my first thought when I saw the news story.

Gee, is there anything Kerry was wrong about?

[karynnj]

2. Kerry did a very nice job pointing out that he had recommended that

while immediately making the distinction from it meaning more soldiers in Iraq.

[ProSense]

3. Think Progress post:

FLASHBACK: Bush Said Kerry Proposal to Increase Size of Military Would Make The Country ‘Less Safe’

Yesterday, President Bush announced his intention to increase the “overall size” of the Army, acknowledging that the current forces were “stressed.” The Washington Post reports he’s considering an increase of 50,000-70,000 troops.

On June 3, 2004, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) — campaigning for the presidency — proposed expanding the Army by 40,000 troops. Bush quickly slammed the proposal as unnecessary and counter-productive:

Bush’s campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld already has authorized 30,000 more troops through extended tours and new recruitment. He said the country would be “less safe” under Kerry’s approach.

In a news release, Kerry explained the problem with the Bush approach:

The Bush administration is relying on temporary solutions including “Stop Loss” orders, recalling the Individual Ready Reserve and extending tours to meet our commitments. These temporary measures have increased the burden on our troops and their families without addressing the underlying reality: we need more troops.

As recently as six months ago, President Bush was sticking to his guns. From a June 14, 2006, “Statement of Administration Policy“:

more...

This is what Kerry proposed:

Today, our military is overextended and our troops are overburdened. John Kerry and John Edwards have a plan to transform the world's most powerful military to better address the modern threats of terrorism and the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, while ensuring that we have enough properly trained and equipped troops to meet our enduring strategic and regional missions. To accomplish this, they will (1) expand our active duty forces, (2) double America's Special Forces capability and increase other specialized personnel, (3) complete the process of transformation, (4) add homeland security as an additional National Guard mission, and (5) enact a Military Family Bill of Rights to relieve the burden on military families. And John Kerry will ensure that returning veterans receive the transitional support and employment protection that they deserve.

Expand America's Active Duty Forces As president, John Kerry will ensure that our military has sufficient troop strength to protect our national security without placing an undue burden on the men and women of our armed forces. He will:

-- Add 40,000 Troops to the Active Duty Army to Prevent and Prepare for Other Possible Conflicts (not to increase the overall number of soldiers in Iraq). Currently, the Bush administration is relying on temporary solutions including "Stop Loss" orders, recalling the Individual Ready Reserve and extending tours to meet our commitments. These temporary measures have increased the burden on our troops and their families without addressing the underlying reality: we need more troops.

Double America's Army Special Forces Capability and Increase Other Specialized Personnel John Kerry and John Edwards recognize the critical role of the Special Forces and other specialized personnel play in America's military. As president, John Kerry will:

-- Double the Army's Special Forces Capability by the End of his First Term. As part of the 40,000 new troops, John Kerry will double Army Special Forces capabilities in his first four years as president. His plan calls for adding 3,500 active duty and 1,400 reserve Army Special Forces personnel.

-- Increase Active-Duty and Reserve Civil Affairs Personnel. As president, John Kerry will increase by 1,200 the number of civil affairs personnel - 200 active-duty and 1,000 reserves. Today's missions are increasingly dependent on civil affairs skills that are needed in post-conflict situations.

[MH1]

6. Kos picked it up and links it in the open thread

Hey, for kos, it's something.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/12/20/121954/99

[ProSense]

7. Also at the DNC website:

http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/12/looking_back.php

[Democrafty]

8. Oh,

HELL yeah!

This is great. Definitely improving my mood after the Today Show debacle.

[karynnj]

9. That is great - I like that they included

the relationship to stop loss. It puts in perspective who was thinking about the troops.

[ProSense]

4. Matthew Yglesias post

A Bigger Army

The President says he wants to increase the end-strength size of the Army. What to think? One point to note is that this is a longstanding Democratic Party idea, something backed by John Kerry. Is it actually a good idea? The answer is that it depends.

In a world without tradeoffs, a larger Army would certainly be useful. Life, however, is all about tradeoffs. A bigger Army is a more expensive one: "Army officials have estimated that for each addition of 10,000 soldiers to the force, it would cost about $1.2 billion." One can easily imagine worse things to spend $5 billion on than adding 40,000 troops to the Army, but one can also imagine better things. The Kerry campaign's proposal was to pay for the troop increase by scaling back spending on national missile defense. That would be a good idea. Similarly, any additions in troops that can from scaling back or canceling weapons systems like the V-22 Osprey, the Virginia Class Submarine, the DD(X) Destroyer, the F-22 Raptor, or the size of the American nuclear arsenal would be a good idea. Reasonably independently of specific ideas about foreign policy it makes sense to shift military spending away from hardware and toward quantity and quality of personnel. Likewise along these lines, if we end our deployment in Iraq in 2007 rather than in 2009 or 2012 we'll save hundreds of billions of dollars that would be better spent on enhancing the Army's manpower.

Conversely, simply borrowing additional money to further increase the Defense Department budget or reducing the budgets of other agencies to increase the Defense Department budget is not an appealing option. We should be changing America's security-spending priorities to better-suited the contemporary world, not increasing the overall scale of our spending at a time when America's objective security from foreign threats has rarely been higher.

[kerrygoddess]

5. So noted on the Dem Daily as well...

Bush Says, “U.S. Not Winning War in Iraq”
December 20th, 2006 @ 3:18 am

{SNIP}
And Baker also pointed out that “Democrats have been calling for additional troops for years.”

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) proposed an increase of 40,000 troops during his 2004 campaign against Bush, only to be dismissed by the administration. As recently as June, the Bush administration opposed adding more troops because restructuring “is enabling our military to get more war-fighting capability from current end strength.”

But Bush yesterday had changed his mind.

So, we see once again that Bush has flip-flopped all over the map on an issue and we see once again, that John Kerry was right. Too darn bad, Bush was so bullheaded back in ‘04 that he never heeded Kerry’s proposal. It does appear that time and time again Kerry is light years ahead of Bush on so many issues, including the fact that we’re losing in Iraq.

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=4983

[rox63]

10. More publicity about Kerry being right back in 2004

I Knew That Idea Sounded Familiar