Pentagon Says Iraq Effort Limits Ability to Fight Other Conflicts

[kliljedahl]

Here comes the draft:

WASHINGTON, May 2 - The concentration of American troops and weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan limits the Pentagon's ability to deal with other potential armed conflicts, the military's highest ranking officer reported to Congress on Monday.

The officer, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Congress in a classified report that major combat operations elsewhere in the world, should they be necessary, would probably be more protracted and produce higher American and foreign civilian casualties because of the commitment of Pentagon resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.


A half dozen Pentagon civilian and military officials were discussing the outlines of the report on Monday as it was being officially delivered to Congress; one government official provided a copy to The New York Times. The officials who discussed the assessment demanded anonymity because it is a classified document.

General Myers cited reduced stockpiles of precision weapons, which were depleted during the invasion of Iraq, and the stress on reserve units, which fulfill the bulk of combat support duties in Iraq, as among the factors that would limit the Pentagon's ability to prevail as quickly as war planners once predicted in other potential conflicts.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/politics/03military.html?hp&ex=1115179200&en=8e61d2b8d4bd2e4b&ei=5094&partner=homepage



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[rodeodance]

1. cnn actually did a good report on this (short) but they had a pic of

clip of Franks on and him saying this.