Yesterday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Myers reported to Congress that in fact the military is overstretched. His assessment is if we have another conflict it will take longer to deal with the conflict and there is an increased risk to our military which translates into higher casualties due to our limited manpower.
In election 2000, George W. Bush acknowledged that the military, especially the Army, was about 40,000 under strength. After the Supreme Court elected Bush president, he promptly ignored the problem that he himself identified and did not request of Congress the additional manpower or the money necessary to fund that increased strength of the military. He directed General Franks to prepare an operations plan to invade Iraq. That plan required 300,000 United States military on the ground by the time Saddam Husseinâ's regime fell in order to maintain control of the country. For those Joe Users who insist on sources, take a look at page 99 of , Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward in which he goes into detail about the operation plan prepared by General Franks at the direction of George W. Bush. The Army Chief of Staff at that time also told Mr. Bush it would require several hundred thousand boots on the ground to have any chance of controlling Iraq. Mr. Bush ignored his top generals and elected to go to war with insufficient military ( less then half what the generals said were required) thus compounding the shortfall he acknowledged in a campaign of 2000.
Why is this action of George Bush in Iraq so important today? Because the very thing that happened in Iraq because of the lack of manpower, higher casualties and longer duration, is exactly what General Myers is telling us will happen if we have another conflict given the fact that we have not provided the manpower necessary to do the job. This morning are more stories about the difficulty in meeting recruiting goals for the active Army and the Marine Corps. The Chief of the Army Reserve has reported there are significant recruiting and retention problems with the Army Reserve. Bush, as commander-in-chief, has ignored his conclusions as well as the advice of his top generals. This is an issue that is 100% on the plate of George W.. Bush! It is time for Congress to require the increased manning levels for both the Army and Marine Corps, since the President refuses to meet his responsibilities!