Destroying the Army you have

Through arrogance, incompetence and foolishness the Bush administration and Donald Rumsfeld are making us less secure by destroying the Army Reserves and the National Guard. Recruitment goals are being missed by 30 percent and the reason is not surprising.
Reservists May Face Longer Tours of Duty

Army leaders are considering seeking a change in Pentagon policy that would allow for longer and more frequent call-ups of some reservists to meet the demands of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior Army official said yesterday.

Reservists are being used heavily to fill key military support jobs, particularly in specialty areas, but Army authorities are having increasing difficulty limiting the active-duty time of some normally part-time soldiers to a set maximum of two years, the official said. He described the National Guard's 15 main combat units as close to being "tapped out."

Donald Rumsfeld thought that troops on the ground were an anachronism and that high tech smart weapons could win any conflicts. As we have seen he was very wrong. As a result the "Reserves" have become the regular Army without many of the benefits. The National Guard and Reserves were intended to be a back up force. Instead they now represent close to 50 percent of the troops on the ground in the unnecessary war in Iraq. That leaves the United States without a major resource on the domestic front to deal with both natural and unnatural disasters. As the ranks of the reserves decline because of low enlistment and reenlistment we will remain "undefended" domestically for years to come. And the Republicans still have the nerve to say the Democrats are weak on defense.