The complaints from our military to the Defense Secretary today are the latest in an unhealthy trend with our military force. Secretary Rumsfeld listened to the complaints from our soldiers in what appeared to be a big surprise for him today. This follows the refusal of a reserve unit to obay orders because they lacked the proper equipment. If also follows the statement of a National Guard General that his troops did not have the proper equipmemt.
Complaints about inadequate equipment, the stop loss policy that is disrupting the lives of both are active military and reserve forces as well of the extensive use of National Guard and reserves clearly document that both Bush and Rumsfeld failed to plan for the Iraq war. The secretary told the troops " you go to war with the army you have". The problem with that statement is that the United States chose when we went to this war. Why did we go to war without the necessary equipment and the manpower we need?
It the 2000 election, George W. Bush indicated that the army was too small and needed to the increased. He spent the last four years doing nothing to correct the problem that he himself identified. The Iraq war is not like World War II or Korea when the timing was forced upon us but rather we went to war against a country that was not threatening us in a preemptive fashion. It is time that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense be made to explain why they chose to go to war without the necessary equipment and manpower. The lack of both has added to American casualties. We are approaching 1,300 dead; about 9,000 combat injuries and almost 15,000 noncombat related injuries. This war has killed or injured 25,000 young Americans. How many of these are because our Commander-in-Chief took our military to war improperly prepared?