I guess we know what " Plan B " is now don't we ? Why is Gen Casey coming out with this now ? He announced the latest attempt to bribe those Officers that are bailing out of the Army in record numbers. $20,000
Gen. George Casey, who took over as the Army's chief just a month ago, said the United States will "be in a period of conflict for, I believe, another five or ten years." And the Army, which has been stretched and stressed by five difficult years at war, must be organized and equipped to deal with that challenge, he said.
Of course you know there is some kind of qualifier to soothe the masses so they don't panic. Can't have us upset about ten more years of war now can they ? This short sentence is the only bone he throws us. The general said he is not suggesting that the Iraq or Afghanistan wars will last five more years. The rest reads like the beginning of a 100 year war. http://www.chron.com/...
Let me paste the whole paragraph that last sentence came from and the following one for the full effect of his comforting thoughts.
The general said he is not suggesting that the Iraq or Afghanistan wars will last five more years. But Casey, who was the top commander in Iraq until February, acknowledged that building a stable, self-governing Iraq is a "long-term proposition."
"We have been attacked and are at war with an insidious group of transnational terrorists who are attacking our way of life, and are going to continue to attack our way of life until we beat them, because I don't see them giving up," he said.
We have a broken Army, a broken National Guard, almost a third of our active troops either have or will have PTSD, our equipment is worn out, yet instead of Ford retooling to build what we need they complain about a lack of business and lay people off. They must have a plan right ? Some idea of where we are going or how we are going to get there has to be known by the Chief of Staff of the US Army.
Casey, who served as the Iraq commander from July 2004 until February 2007, said he doesn't know how long the Army can keep up current troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But, he said, "it's a question I have foremost in my mind."
Oh shit. 5 years into this mess at least they are beginning to think about maybe planning ahead just as soon as they figure out how long to plan for. I sure hope that Splurge works. Wait, can we call a five to ten year continuing conflict a splurge ? Maybe National Suicide fits better than splurge. No wonder the Officers are bailing out. Just to put a fine point on what that means.
Casey said leadership development is one of his priorities, along with increasing the size of the Army, improving conditions for soldiers and their families and continuing to transform the service so it can better fight future battles.
According to the Army, the attrition rate for officers is higher than it has been in previous years, with graduates of West Point, the Officer Candidate School and ROTC leaving at a faster pace once they've finished their initial tour in the military.
Translation to that is much fewer career officers. Leaving after their "initial tour" used to be damn near unheard of when the Army was a career path. Facing 3 or 4 more tours of duty in a warzone should make anyone think twice about a new career. Odds you don't come in one piece, if at all, decrease with every mission.
Common sense, something this war has been short of, should alert us all to the fact that without decent trained officers to lead the troops we are in even worse shape than before. Appealing to the greed of human nature is the governments answer, the proposal is to give Captains a extra $20,000 bonus to hang around. That equals a raise of appox 54 bucks a day. That's about what a Mercenary makes a hr now days. Maybe that's where all our officers are going anyway ? I'm rambling and you get the point by now. Just another dairy ranting about the failures and mistakes that happen everyday now, and will it seems for another 10 years.