MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS BODE ILL FOR OUR FUTURE SECURITY

[trof]

Georgie Ann Geyer

WASHINGTON -- A number of dangerous developments in our military have suddenly come together -- pushed forward by the war in Iraq (news - web sites) -- that should give Americans grounds for worry about the future security of our nation.

The figures are starting to add up in the newspaper articles. The Army will recall more than 5,000 veteran soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve to active duty (instead of reducing the number of troops in Iraq, as had been promised). Recent studies by the U.S. Army show that one in five U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq suffers serious mental health problems associated with post-traumatic stress syndrome. (Similar rates in the U.S. adult population are 3 percent to 4 percent; in the first Gulf War (news - web sites), 2 percent to 10 percent suffered such problems; and in Vietnam, a far bloodier war fought by a conscript army, 15 percent suffered the same problems.)

Gen. Richard A. Cody, the new Army vice chief of staff, testified recently in Congress: "Are we stretched too thin with our active and reserve component forces right now? Absolutely."

"The war in Iraq is wrecking the Army and the Marine Corps," retired Navy Capt. John Byron writes in the July issue of Proceedings, the professional journal of naval officers. "Troop rotations are in shambles, and the all-volunteer force is starting to crumble as we extend combat tours and struggle to get enough boots on the ground."

(on the draft)
All of this discussion is not about how we can dredge up every college boy, young father and budding woman professional to be sent to all the corners of the globe for the military adventures of a few in Washington. Rather, we should be considering how to reinstate an American government that can make rational policy choices that will truly serve American interests.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2205&ncid=742&e=13&u=/ucgg/20040710/cm_ucgg/militarydevelopmentsbodeillforourfuturesecurity

[Paradise]

1. and our enemies know it! nt

[hedda_foil]

2. More

Curiously enough, some of the Bush administration's war party mention restoring a draft so that all American boys -- and girls -- can partake of the joy of serving in their abstract wars of personal agenda and ambition.


Think for just a moment how crazy this really makes them out to be! A draft would bring to the fore all the corrective elements in American society whose absence from the play during the last four years has allowed these neocon adventurers to do what they have done. A draft would connect average American citizens to their government and force them to become voices in the irresponsible deployment young Americans.


Don't the administration's hawks know this? It is a kind of perverse tribute to their fanaticism that they do not. They are so focused on the horizon -- where they imagine an imperialist America in league with a "reconfigured" Middle East in which Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s Israel is the major player -- that they cannot see that a draft would doom their adventures.

[phantom power]

4. sure they know it

that's why they've been drawing so hard on the reserves. They are doing everything in their power to postpone a draft until after the elections: stop-loss orders, calling up the reserves, etc.

[bemildred]

3. This has been obvious for about a year.

I've been seeing "the Army is broken" stories for at least that long.
I'm still a bit stunned that after all that trouble to rebuild it
after VietNam they just threw it away in such a cavalier manner.

[indepat]

5. Although the war in Iraq is wrecking the Army and the Marine Corps,

such is such a small price to pay to realize the PNAC dream and vision of empire and hegemony: and there's oil in them deserts. Moreover, and notwithstanding our wrecked ground forces, Rummy is doing a superb job as is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.