Gen. Casey: Army needs three to four years to recover from Iraq strains

[babylonsister]

So staying there is not helping in the recovery, but further weakening the Army. Is anyone going to do anything about that?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071008/pl_afp/usmilitaryarmy

Army needs three to four years to recover from Iraq strains: chief

Mon Oct 8, 4:26 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Army will need three or four years to recover from the strains of repeated deployments to Iraq even with a planned drawdown of US forces next year, the service's chief said Monday.

General George Casey said the army is "out of balance" after six years of warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq, and facing unpredictable demands in an era of "persistent conflict."

"Out of balance is not broken, it's not hollow," he said. "But we're forced by the current demands on the force to do more in the current time frame at the expense of sustaining the all-volunteer force and building bridges for the future."

"We know where we need to go and it's going to take three or four years and a substantial amount of resources to put ourselves back in balance," he told reporters at an annual army conference.

Strains on the army intensified earlier this year when President George W. Bush decided to buildup US force levels in Iraq as part of an effort to bring spiraling sectarian violence under control.

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[Shipwack]

1. Genral Casey i seither an idiot, or lying.

Wait, those aren't mutually exclusive.

It'll take us far longer than that. Ten years minimum.

Ten years to build up the pool of experienced non-commissioned officers that we've lost due to injury and death.

Ten years to flush out those who were allowed to join despite not meeting standards.

Ten years to get rid of the majority of those who survived, but learned the wrong lessons from the conflict.

Ten times ten years until the stain of dishonor for frivolously sending people to die is removed.