Sunday, August 06, 2006
Two quotes from today about the situation in Iraq...
"We're ruining our United States Army. We are decimating our army. We can't continue with the tempo and the commitment that we are on right now," Hagel said on CBS "Face the Nation."
and, "This is a civil war. I think the generals, the other day, were cautious in their language. But I think they were telling us something loud and clear to anyone who wanted to listen," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. "I frankly don't believe that U.S. military people can necessarily play referee in that kind of a situation."
and, "This is a civil war. I think the generals, the other day, were cautious in their language. But I think they were telling us something loud and clear to anyone who wanted to listen," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. "I frankly don't believe that U.S. military people can necessarily play referee in that kind of a situation."
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There's no question that deployments abroad or domestically leads to wear and tear on heavy machinery like HUMVEEs, trucks, APCs, tanks, etc. How could it not?
So vehicles need repair or replacement on a higher tempo as they're used more. It's a "well duh" type of thing. So it's not surprising that the Army has a great number of vehicles in service depots right now needing fixing or replacement.
However tools are only half of the equation when it comes to "the Military" the other factor is the human capital dimension - and the fact is, virtually all our regular Army and National Guard and reserve troops have rotated through Afganistan and/or Iraq in the last few years, meaning virtually everyone has battlefield experience - something which makes our soldiers, marines, etc. much much more trained than anyone else's.
You can repair or replace vehicles relatively quickly - you can't provide the 'human capital' training our troops have received as easily.
So the upshot is... our military is immeasurably better off as a fighting force now than it was in 2001 even if there's a momentary dip in vehicular readiness - that will be taken care of within 6 months.
So vehicles need repair or replacement on a higher tempo as they're used more. It's a "well duh" type of thing. So it's not surprising that the Army has a great number of vehicles in service depots right now needing fixing or replacement.
However tools are only half of the equation when it comes to "the Military" the other factor is the human capital dimension - and the fact is, virtually all our regular Army and National Guard and reserve troops have rotated through Afganistan and/or Iraq in the last few years, meaning virtually everyone has battlefield experience - something which makes our soldiers, marines, etc. much much more trained than anyone else's.
You can repair or replace vehicles relatively quickly - you can't provide the 'human capital' training our troops have received as easily.
So the upshot is... our military is immeasurably better off as a fighting force now than it was in 2001 even if there's a momentary dip in vehicular readiness - that will be taken care of within 6 months.
# posted by 
: 8/07/2006 09:56:00 AM
: 8/07/2006 09:56:00 AM
There is no question that our military is the strongest and best trained on the planet. No one is denying that fact. The fact, is however, a good portion of our National Guard is in Iraq and our military is stretched thin, so does it make sense to keep what we have in the middle of a civil war? Whose side would be fighting for and how is that going to look to the other side if they're not chosen by us for protection?
Our mere presense in Iraq is just fueling the fire too. Redeploying to Kuwait or another country is not going to be easy, but I have a feeling the Iraqis will be glad to see us go and won't hit us hard if that is the route we take!
There is no winning in Iraq. Sometimes in life it is better to move forward after admitting mistakes. The Bush Cartel doesn't like to admit ONE mistake because if they did, Americans would question everything else they've done (and rightly so!), but it makes sense to me to move on and protect the soldiers we have remaining.
Did you read the article recently that our soldiers are using ear plugs from the 1950s? The 1950s!!! Our machinery is breaking down over there because it's old. A few new machines are over there, but generally, everything is pretty old left over stuff. War on the cheap is not a good thing.
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Our mere presense in Iraq is just fueling the fire too. Redeploying to Kuwait or another country is not going to be easy, but I have a feeling the Iraqis will be glad to see us go and won't hit us hard if that is the route we take!
There is no winning in Iraq. Sometimes in life it is better to move forward after admitting mistakes. The Bush Cartel doesn't like to admit ONE mistake because if they did, Americans would question everything else they've done (and rightly so!), but it makes sense to me to move on and protect the soldiers we have remaining.
Did you read the article recently that our soldiers are using ear plugs from the 1950s? The 1950s!!! Our machinery is breaking down over there because it's old. A few new machines are over there, but generally, everything is pretty old left over stuff. War on the cheap is not a good thing.
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