Bush administration risks destroying best military in Iraq--the US Army: "Of the Army's 33 combat brigades, 16 are in Iraq; this leaves us ill prepared to cope with genuine threats. Moreover, military experts say that with almost two-thirds of its brigades deployed overseas, mainly in Iraq, the Army's readiness is eroding: normal doctrine calls for only one brigade in three to be deployed abroad, while the other two retrain and refit.
And the war will have devastating effects on future recruiting by the reserves. A widely circulated photo from Iraq shows a sign in the windshield of a military truck that reads, 'One weekend a month, my ass.'
To top it all off, our insistence on launching a war without U.N. approval has deprived us of useful allies. George Bush claims to have a 'huge coalition,' but only 7 percent of the coalition soldiers in Iraq are non-American and administration pleas for more help are sounding increasingly plaintive.
How serious is the strain on our military? The Brookings Institution military analyst Michael O'Hanlon, who describes our volunteer military as "one of the best military institutions in human history," warns that "the Bush administration will risk destroying that accomplishment if they keep on the current path.""
- posted by geoff @ #