McCain and the “last push crowd” are OK with the fact that Army combat and support units scheduled to deploy to Iraq in 2007 will have less than the required one year period for rest and re-training, and far less than the two years General Peter Pace recently told a bunch of National Guard and Reservists. (That is already happening, by the way... I spoke with an officer from the 101st Airborne Unit based in Clarksville, TN who’s been back about a month. He said he is due to go back within 250 days.
They are fine with the fact that thousands of key Army weapons platforms – such as tanks, Humvees, Bradley Fighting Vehicles – sitting in disrepair and unused at Army maintenance depots for lack of funding.
They are cool with the idea there’s been and will continue to be a reduction in quality of recruits coming into military with growing drug and discipline problems noted. The military has been forced to increase the number of Category 4 recruits from 2 percent to 4 percent of the annual goal, and increase the percent of recruits who receive medical, moral, or criminal record waivers from 10 percent of the 2001 recruiting class, to 15 percent in 2005, and possibly as much as 18 percent in 2006.
The idea of the Army living “Hand to mouth,” and could well be broken, according to Generals,
is just dandy with them.
McCain and the “last push guys” don’t mind the strain on the military
The fact that there are 39 active duty combat brigades in total within the U.S. military... Today, there are 16 U.S. combat brigades in Iraq (including 2 Marine Corps regiments). Over the coming months, roughly 19.5 combat brigades will be committed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Army doctrine calls for 2 units to be held in reserve (for rest and training) for every unit deployed. The last push crowd is fine with creating a state of disrepair within the Army.
McCain is OK with the fact that not counting those to be deployed for Bush’s Immigration program stateside, of the 341,000 Army National Guard soldiers in uniform, only roughly 50,000 remain available for mobilization. For the Army Reserve, only about 56,000 of the 190,000 in uniform are available.
The “last push crowd” and McCain are fine with the fact that Army military readiness rates have declined to levels not seen since the end of the Vietnam War. Roughly one-half of all Army units (deployed and non-deployed, active and reserves) received the lowest readiness rating any fully formed unit can receive.
They don’t seem to mind that of all the Guard units not currently mobilized, about four-fifths received the lowest readiness rating, or that the 1st Cavalry Division and its 4 brigades deployed to Iraq in October at the lowest level of readiness because of equipment shortfalls. To meet its needs, this unit – like virtually all other units that have recently deployed or will soon deploy to Iraq – must fall-in on equipment in theater. Operating unfamiliar, battle weary equipment increases the potential for casualties and accidents. McCain and the “Last push” crowd think they’re supporting the troops by allowing this to occur and continue.
Ask Sen. McCain and the last push crowd: Where are we to get these additional troops? WAPO says they don’t exist.
Ask this bunch if they are wholly confident in the sustainability of the All-Volunteer Force, while the GAO recommends assessment of this as one of Congress’ top items in the upcoming 110th Congress.
Finally, they are satisfied with squandering America's financial resources on ... well, America!