Army Too Stretched if Iraq Buildup Lasts: "...demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply."

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/AP: Army Too Stretched if Iraq Buildup Lasts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 19, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next spring. The Army's 38 available combat units are deployed, just returning home or already tapped to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, leaving no fresh troops to replace five extra brigades that President Bush sent to Baghdad this year, according to interviews and military documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

That presents the Pentagon with several painful choices if the U.S. wants to maintain higher troop levels beyond the spring of 2008:

--Using National Guard units on an accelerated schedule.

--Breaking the military's pledge to keep soldiers in Iraq for no longer than 15 months.

--Breaching a commitment to give soldiers a full year at home before sending them back to war.

For a war-fatigued nation and a Congress bent on bringing troops home, none of those is desirable....

***

When asked what units will fill the void in the coming spring if any need to be replaced, officials give a grim shake of the head, shrug of the shoulders or a palms-up, empty-handed gesture.

''The demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply,'' the Army chief of staff, Gen. George Casey, said last week. ''Right now we have in place deployment and mobilization policies that allow us to meet the current demands. If the demands don't go down over time, it will become increasingly difficult for us to provide the trained and ready forces'' for other missions....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Iraq-Out-of-Troops.html

[The Vinyl Ripper]

1. Toward the end of the Vietnam war..

There were whole company sized units refusing to go into combat..

When it gets to that level in Iraq, then we shall see some progress made in getting out.

Before that, not so much.

The politicians are thinking of their "honor".

[Contrary1]

2. It's a no-brainer...

"painful choice" #s 1, 2, and 3, of course; which in reality won't cause Bush any pain at all.