2/3rds Army Combat Brigades Not Ready Because Of Bush Incompetence

[kpete]

Army's Readiness Questioned
Associated Press | July 27, 2006

WASHINGTON - Up to two-thirds of the Army's combat brigades are not ready for wartime missions, largely because they are hampered by equipment shortfalls, Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday, citing unclassified documents.

In a letter to President Bush, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that "nearly every non-deployed combat brigade in the active Army is reporting that they are not ready" for combat. The figures, he said, represent an unacceptable risk to the nation.

At a news conference, other leading Democrats said that those strategic reserve forces are critically short of personnel and equipment.

"They're the units that could be called upon or would be called upon to go to war in North Korea, Iran, or any other country or region," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Marine who has called for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,107179,00.html

[Greeby]

1. If I thought that would stop Shrubco's wars, it'd be a good thing

Cept I know he'll send them into the slaughterhouse, trained or not

[Jeanette in FL]

2. Aug. 7, 2000 - Bush the Candidate Quote

Aug. 7, 2000 | "If called on by the commander in chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, 'Not ready for duty, sir.'"
-- Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, Aug. 3, 2000

One of the primary pillars of Bush's campaign is his contention that the Clinton-Gore administration has let military readiness and morale dip to dangerously low levels.

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So how are things going now Georgie, now that you have been in charge for the past 5 years. Looks like things are getting worse.

[Solly Mack]

3. Many weren't ready for deployment in the beginning either

but that didn't stop Bush from forcing them into deploying anyway.

I watched my husband's unit scramble for equipment and they still went without all the necessary equipment needed and this was in 2003. Heck, people were still trying to get uniforms just hours before the deployment ceremony.A bunch of us sewed all night just to get the uniforms we did have ready...and some left with the uniform name tags written in with a laundry marker - that's how bad it was.

His unit had soldiers that were non-deployable for good cause (medical)..and because that meant troop strength was below readiness for deployment, and this put pressure on the commander from high above, so his commander had people re-evaluated to make them deployable - even when their medical problems still existed.

One guy got sent over with extreme high blood pressure and on medication that prevented him from being exposed to extreme heat. One guy was sent even though he was on suicide watch. One officer, who was pregnant, and you're not supposed to deploy when you're pregnant, kept her pregnancy off the books until after she was there 3 months...that way she could help increase troop strength and keep the commander from getting his ass chewed from above.

They begged and borrowed soldiers from other units to raise their percentages for deployment. You have to reach a certain percentage of troop strength to be considered ready for deployment - and this unit went from failing to ready to go in a week.

Iraq was a clusterfuck from the get-go and it still is

[ninkasi]

4. One of the many reasons I hate them

are stories like your husband's. It's one thing to ask people to make sacrifices to protect their country from being invaded (ask the Iraqis), and quite another to throw unprepared men and women into hell for economic gain. I try to imagine what loved ones go through as they wait for their husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, or children to return. I try to imagine the shock and pain of having the government that sent people to war ignore those same people when they come home minus a limb or two, or blind.

Our military is being used as a private enforcement tool by wealthy and dangerous men who will stop at nothing to get more power, and more wealth. As we here all knew, Bush wanted to invade Iraq before he stole the first election. He was waiting for a reason, and used the WTC tragedy as that reason. It was wrong, of course, since every excuse he gave for invading turned out to be false.

The same deranged men who screwed up in Afghanistan and Iraq are now drooling at the prospect of taking on Iran, and Syria. They don't have to worry about whether a war-weary military is ready or not, they'll throw them to the wolves anyway. Their children aren't in danger. These are the most immoral, corrupt bunch of people to be in charge of a country since some of the other regimes of the past, like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot...the list is long, but it's the first time our country has been on it.

[Solly Mack]

5. Thank you for your words and I agree with them 100%

One of the biggest fears voiced in discussion groups of soldiers and their families is "What happens afterward?"

We hear the stories of soldiers screwed out of benefits and dirted by the government and we see it firsthand - and this is happening when politicians are quick to tell anyone and everyone how much they support the troops. But the true test of support comes in securing their benefits, it comes in actual help when needed for PTSD, and rehabilitation/training for the injured and forever changed. It comes in not denying the reality of a military stretched way too thin and at the breaking point, and most important of all - it comes in not sending them off to die for lies.

We worry if we'll be treated like the Vietnam vets - forgotten because the war was unpopular and caused America's image to be tarnished (as if that was the fault of the troops) - so it's easier to forget we exist than it is to acknowledge us..to acknowledge the lasting damage war brings. If stories remain long after the conflict is over of how the troops are being screwed over...then America continues to look bad...so it's easier not to print those stories. It's easier to allow Americans to believe the troops are being taken care of...after Vietnam, so many vets were screwed out of the help they had earned and were entitled to...and so many people were willing to overlook this... it's part of the "looking ahead" and "moving on" thinking"...

Maybe if you weren't directly hit by the war it's easier to move on and look forward...but when you experience what war is firsthand, you can't just let it go. Every single day a soldier looks in the mirror and sees a changed person..if they still have eyes, that is...but if you're missing a limb or two or three or if the nightmares come every single night...it's hard to move on. You don't even need a mirror...it's inside you. And for your country to now abandon you because it's cheaper or easier? Damn

Sorry for the rant.

Thank you again.

[ninkasi]

6. You are entitled to rant

I'm 63, so it was young men of my age, plus or minus a few years, who were drafted or enlisted and fought in Vietnam. I hated the war, but didn't blame the soldiers. Some were friends, a couple were family members. I never had trouble telling the two things apart.

I have seen too much over the years, where young, strong, healthy men were sent to fight in a jungle for a cause none of us understood. Some came home with physical injuries, some with troubled minds and souls, and some didn't come home at all.

Every time I see a homeless guy who looks to be about the right age, I wonder if he left part of his soul and mind in Vietnam. Some hold signs saying that they are vets. Too many of them have experienced troubles with drugs, alcohol, homelessness and broken marriages for anybody to doubt the traumatic effects of a war of choice.

Mostly, though for those who were drafted, they were overseas for about a year, then they were back. How many troops have been sent back over and over to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or both? Their families have to try to cope, and some who were with the NG know that they won't have jobs waiting for them when they get back. Does Bush care? We know better.

The chicken-hawks like to puff up their chests, and babble on about supporting our troops, but in truth, they use these men and women as if they were disposable, and after they are back home, they turn away from them. It's most important to pass out the pork to members of Congress, and give themselves raises, and lower taxes on the wealthy.

It sickens me to see a country permitting this shameful treatment of our troops. If it has me enraged, Solly Mack, I can only try to imagine how you feel. You and your husband deserve better.