This Pollyanna army
by Sidney BlumenthalThe most penetrating critique of the realism informing President Bush’s second inaugural address, a trumpet call of imperial ambition, was made one month before it was delivered, by Lt Gen James Helmly, chief of the US Army Reserve.
In an internal memorandum, he described “the Army Reserve’s inability under current policies, procedures and practices … to meet mission requirements associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. The Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements and is rapidly degenerating into a broken force”.
These “dysfunctional” policies are producing a crisis “more acute and hurtful”, as the Reserve’s ability to mobilise troops is “eroding daily”.
The US force in Iraq of about 150,000 troops is composed of a “volunteer” army that came into being with the end of military conscription during the Vietnam war. More than 40% are National Guard and Reserves, most having completed second tours of duty and being sent out again.
The force level has been maintained by the Pentagon only by “stop-loss” orders that coerce soldiers to remain in service after their contractual enlistment expires – a back-door draft.
Re-enlistment is collapsing, by 30% last year. The Pentagon justified this de facto conscription by telling Congress that it is merely a short-term solution that would not be necessary as Iraq quickly stabilises and an Iraqi security force fills the vacuum. But this week the Pentagon announced that the US force level would remain unchanged through 2006.
“I don’t know where these troops are coming from. It’s mystifying,” Representative Ellen Tauscher, a ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee, told me. “There’s no policy to deal with the fact we have a military in extremis.”
Full Article: guardian.co.uk