1000 Army vehicles destroyed in Iraq (so far...)

[tocqueville]

How the US Army's being worn down in Iraq
By David Isenberg

Recently, the Washington Post reported that US President George W Bush's "surge" of troops to Iraq by 21,500 "would create major logistical hurdles for the US Army and Marine Corps". That's a nice way of putting it, like calling a tsunami a maritime disturbance or an earthquake a tectonic-plate adjustment.

.......

Last February the US Army asked for $9 billion to "reset" its war-depleted stocks - most of it to replace and repair tanks, helicopters and vehicles. Just about five months later, army chief of staff General Peter Schoomaker said the army needed $17.1 billion in fiscal 2007 to "reset" or restore the service's equipment stocks.

Since the Iraq insurgency heated up in autumn of 2003, the US Army's combat losses include at least 20 M1 Abrams tanks, 50 Bradley fighting vehicles, 20 Stryker wheeled combat vehicles, 20 M113 armored personnel carriers, and 250 Humvees. The number of vehicles lost in battle comes to nearly 1,000 after adding in heavy and medium trucks and trailers, mine-clearing vehicles, and Fox wheeled reconnaissance vehicles. Nearly all these losses were caused by improvised explosive devices in Iraq.

The situation was so serious that the Office of the Secretary of Defense considered adding tens of billions of dollars to the army's base budget in the Pentagon's new six-year spending plan to address funding shortfalls that armed-service officials say could threaten the viability of US ground forces.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB07Ak01.html

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ad helicopters and planes to that... since "major combat operations are ended"...

and human lives are priceless...

[Kagemusha]

1. Now this is the legitimate spending Congress should fund.

OTOH, the military collectively finds plenty of ways to ensure that money is spent on much different priorities... so this result is an inevitability.