The Army's Math Problem. We don't have any more soldiers to send to Afghanistan...

[maddezmom]

The Army's Math Problem
We don't have any more soldiers to send to Afghanistan unless we take some out of Iraq.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Monday, May 5, 2008, at 4:56 PM ET

Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants to send 7,000 more U.S. troops—about two brigades—to Afghanistan, according to the May 3 New York Times. But there's a problem, which the story underplays: We don't have any more troops to send. The Army is in a zero-sum state: No more soldiers can be sent to Afghanistan without a one-for-one reduction of soldiers in Iraq.

Let's look at the numbers.

After the last of the five "surge" brigades goes home this summer, the U.S. Army will have 13 brigade combat teams in Iraq (the Marines have two more) and two in Afghanistan. One BCT serves as a "global response force," ready to respond to a small-scale emergency elsewhere in the world. One is in Korea. One is dedicated to homeland defense and security. One, at a base in Fort Riley, Kan., is training soldiers to become advisers to Iraqi and Afghan security forces. That adds up to 19 BCTs. All the other Army brigades are either between deployments or in their 12-month downtime periods, having fulfilled their 12-to-15-month deployment tours. (For a little more detail on these numbers, click here.)

more:http://www.slate.com/id/2190661/

[maxsolomon]

1. Empty the prisons

this is simply embarassing for an empire of our magnificence.

:sarcasm:

[Uben]

2. We're looking for a few good........

....torturers! They need a new slogan!

[Geoff R. Casavant]

3. Well, we still have a Navy

God's truth, some Navy folks have been activated to supplement the Army numbers. Look for this to happen a lot more in the future.

[classysassy]

4. Draft beer