Army study: U.S. facing hard choices

[soup]

Army study: U.S. facing hard choices
Lack of GIs may force cut in mission goals

By Michael Kilian
Washington Bureau
Published July 12, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has consistently rejected any contention that the Army is stretched too thin in fighting simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But a new Army study has concluded the service is so strained that the U.S. will soon "need to decide what military capabilities the Army should have and what risks may be prudent to assume."

Numerous critics and outside defense policy groups have warned that the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has taxed the Army so badly that it will have difficulty meeting any new crises elsewhere, but the new assessment comes from an in-house undertaking prepared by the RAND Corp.'s Arroyo Center, the Army's federally funded research institute.
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Even as the Army was studying the report, it announced Monday that it is augmenting its troop strength in Afghanistan this month with a battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division that just returned from Iraq in March. And the Army's latest monthly recruitment figures released Monday show the service and its reserve components likely will not meet recruitment goals for this fiscal year.

The report--"Stretched Thin: Army Forces for Sustained Operations"--was to have been released Monday, but a RAND spokeswoman said it had been postponed to allow "further review" by the Army. Nonetheless, Davis indicated the report raises significant questions about the Army's future and the burdens the Pentagon and taxpayers will have to bear to field adequate forces.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0507120251jul12,1,6312103.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

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Side note: Speaking of reports, wasn't Rumsfeld under a deadline to provide a report on July 11? Does anyone know if that report was released?


Bush signs $82 billion war funds bill
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Posted: 7:19 PM EDT (2319 GMT)

>snip<
Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, called that "a key element of a successful strategy to stabilize Iraq and withdraw American forces."

"Another important part of this bill will be the periodic report it requires on the progress our forces are making in Iraq," Kennedy said in a floor statement this week, according to prepared remarks on his Web site.

"I'm encouraged that the administration is finally being required by this bill to tell Congress how many U.S. troops will be necessary in Iraq through the end of 2006," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/10/war.funds/

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Rumsfeld has until July 11 to produce Iraq benchmarks

By DAVID S. BRODER
Washington Post columnist
Last update: July 03, 2005

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Last week, Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democrat on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, pointed to language in the report accompanying last May's Iraq funding bill that would satisfy most of those demands. It orders the first detailed status report on July 11 and follow-ups every 90 days.

The information required is specific and detailed. It includes measures of the security environment, including the number of engagements per day, the count of trained Iraqi forces and more. It orders up indicators of economic activity. It directs Rumsfeld to provide -- either in public or in classified annexes -- an estimate of U.S. military forces needed in Iraq through the end of calendar 2006 and the criteria the administration will use to determine when it is safe to begin withdrawing forces.
http://www.news-journalonline.com//NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN32070305.htm