Thu Jun 26, 2008 at 12:25:25 PM EDT
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| I deployed to Iraq in 2003, with equipment that was older than my father. We drove 1953 5-ton dump trucks like we were in NASCAR. We tested the limits of our support equipment like never before. We drove Humvees with no doors or roof on 30 hour convoy missions between Baghdad and Kuwait. A year later, most of our gear was completely worn out. Much of it was left behind for the unit that replaced us. I remember thinking, "what are they going to do with it?"
Now the Army is starting to feel the pain and cost of equipment repair and replacement. Unfortunately, they only see one way of paying for it all.
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon faces a more than $100 billion bill to repair and replace worn out or destroyed equipment, vehicles and weapons, officials and members of Congress say, but paying for it may endanger plans to boost the size of the military.
In other words, we either get troops or equipment. We don't get both. At a time when we are fighting a global war on terror on multiple fronts, with the bulk of our military tied up in Iraq, we are looking at possible troop cuts.
The military is scrambling to re-equip because the Pentagon failed to plan for the long and expensive war in Iraq, said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs the House panel that oversees military spending.
That failure, Murtha said, makes the Pentagon's plan to add 92,000 new soldiers and Marines unrealistic. Although new troops would help reduce repeated, lengthy deployments, there are other more pressing demands, Murtha said.
So, how do we come up with $100 billion dollars for needed repairs? We are faced with three choices. One, we can scale down the size of our military in order to cover the needed repairs. Two, we can keep the military at its current size, and have worn out equipment. Or three, we borrow more money, and go further into debt to cover the costs. None of these are good options, but they are the choices we have been given.
"It's going to come from personnel cuts," Murtha said. "That's where it's going to come from. They know it."
Pentagon leaders realize they face a choice between a larger military and improved equipment, said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We must reset, reconstitute and revitalize our ground forces," Mullen told a Senate panel in May. However, the costs "will force us to a smaller military or force us away from any kind of modernization or programs that we need for the future."
For the Army's top brass, this is nothing new. General Casey was warning about this last Fall.
WASHINGTON - The Army's top officer, General George Casey, told Congress yesterday that his branch of the military has been stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it can not adequately respond to another conflict - one of the strongest warnings yet from a military leader that repeated deployments to war zones in the Middle East have hamstrung the military's ability to deter future aggression.
To make matters worse, the actual cost of needed repairs remains an unknown because it is contingent upon our current strategy. The Army wants $17 billion a year, for three years after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end. So, if they need it for three years after the wars end, when is that? At what point do we stop and realize that our continued presence in Iraq is breaking the very force that we depend upon to keep us safe? In other words, the longer we keep all of our resources tied up in Iraq, the more vulnerable we become. |
| Chris LeJeune :: Equipment or Troops? Pick One |
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