Gen. Barry McCaffrey - Military needs 80,000 more troops

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040419-610008,00.html

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When a grass fire first starts, you can jump right in the middle of it and stomp it out. But if you wait too long, it just becomes uncontrollable. We should immediately jump onto the opposition and end it, and then launch smart diplomatic moves to get NATO and the U.N. and other Arab forces involved in a bigger way.

There are no more U.S. troops to send to Iraq. That's why we need 80,000 or more troops added to the U.S. Army. Congress is allowing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to dig in his heels and try to maintain a foreign policy based on a grossly undermanned U.S. military. The key question isn't whether the 1st Cavalry Division is going to get run out of Baghdad—it's not. The key question is, if you've got 70% of your combat battalions in the U.S. Army deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Korea and elsewhere, can you maintain this kind of muscular presence in that many places? The answer is no. But if we take action now to increase the size of the Army by 80,000 soldiers, we'll be able to handle this global reach. The key would be to activate nine National Guard brigades in the next 18 months and convert them into active-duty soldiers, allowing the reservists to go back to their communities.

[Amerpie]

1. Downsize this

We don't need more soldiers. We need fewer missions.

[chelsea0011]

2. And people are saying this isn't at all like Vietnam

Back in the day that is all the military kept saying... a few more troops and and a few more bombs.... then it will be all under control.

[stopbush]

3. Fuck McCafferty. Fucking anti-Clinton bush-ass kisser.

He's been WRONG on every single thing in Iraq.

Fuck him.

[Jai4WKC08]

5. ummm... no

Hate to break it to ya, but McCaffrey worked for Clinton, and opposes Bush. He tries to stay somewhat non-partisan, but he is one of the good guys.

[FARAFIELD]

8. YOU have to remember this about him

McCafferty worked for clinton and he has TWO sons in IRAQ right now, and as he said after he criticized BUSH for going too fast to Baghdad and was pummelled for it ("generals embedded in Washington" is what cheney said in reference to him. "I dont give up my right to give my opinion no matter who is in charge". He is a straight up ARMY guy, it remains his family so if he seems PRO war, just think of it through his eyes and being a parent of two fighters

[Gothmog]

4. Badly Undermanned in Iraq

We have been undermanned in Iraq for some time. Bush was told that he would need a force much larger than what we had available to adequately control Iraq. The general who made this assessment was in effect fired. The US simply does not have the available soldiers to adequately do the job.

The only thing that makes sense would be to really bring in the UN and our allies. That would involve the US apologizing to the UN and the US turning over real power over Iraq and Iraq's oil to the UN instead of Halliburton. 20,000 to 50,000 troops from countries other than the US is what is needed to calm things down in Iraq and that is not going to happen.

[JVS]

6. Don't send good money after bad

[leftofthedial]

7. Just 80,000 more troops

and we can support PNAC's goal of staging mulitple Viet Nams all around the world!!

Yippeee!

More wargasms for the MIC.

Fuck every last one of these cretins and damn them to hell.

[Jacobin]

9. Oh great. 80,000 more targets

80,000 more soldiers to shoot 80,000 more Iraqis to create hundreds of thousdands more pissed off Iraqis to.....endless crap. It's a huge West Bank.

Get the Fuck Out Now. The only difference staying longer will make is in the number of transfer tubes shipped home and the number of dead human beings who call Iraq home