Army Stretched Thin!

[Shooterman]

My apologies to those fine folks here that are on active duty. Denigaration of your fine jobs and devotion to duty is not my intention. Just possibly, our good people here can shed enlightenment on this matter.

Strained Army may leave little room for new crisis

With Army stretched thin, could the U.S. respond to a new crisis?
Retired general says deployments put America in 'strategic peril'

snip

FORT HOOD — At this sprawling base on the Central Texas plains, a few hundred soldiers of the 17,000-member 1st Cavalry Division made tearful goodbyes to family members before making another trip to Iraq this month.

On the other side of Fort Hood, soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division trickled back from Iraq at the end of a bloody, yearlong deployment that left scores of their buddies dead and hundreds more wounded.

The quick pace of comings and goings is evidence of an Army strained to the breaking point, with little in reserve if the United States is forced to respond to a new crisis, according to military analysts.

"One third of our combat units are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they are the best troops we've ever fielded, but essentially every other brigade is not ready to fight," said retired Maj. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who makes frequent trips to Iraq as a military consultant.

"America is in a period of strategic peril," he added. "What happens if we have to confront North Korea or Iran?"

Read the entire article.

"What happens if we have to confront North Korea or Iran?"

I've wondered this. Any thoughts?

[RAMESES the Great]

For the past two years, a good third of the military in Iraq and Afghanistan have been deployed individuals and units from the Army and Air National Guard and from the organized reserves of all services. They have demonstrated they form a strong combat ready second force capable of augmenting the primary full-time active duty force. They constitute a largely untapped reserve that should, I believe, be sent before any active brigade/ regiment is ordered to serve a third deployed year in the Global War on Terror.

So Shooterman, that is what happens if we are called upon to fight additional wars in Iran, Somalia, Phillipines South America, Africa and/or Korea, Our neighborhood "weekend warriors", who are much more capable now than they were ten or thirty years ago, will be "gone for soldiers, everyone!" Then comes the draft.

If we are really serious in fighting a global war on terror, and I believe we should be, we should be aware that our last global war, WWII, required the draft and a military that is roughly ten times the size of our present forces. Double that if you account for our population growth in the past 60 years.

I doubt if any of Davy's bloodsuckers, or any of the present generation, would survive any such an expansion today, but someday, I expect, the enboldened IslamoFacists will sufficiently awake our sleeping giant. When they do, I hope the full miliitary, industrial and economic power of the free world descends upon them to anniliate every militant aspect of Islam. The free world needs to convince every muslim and muslim teacher that Islam is a religion of peace, equality and love to others. Anything less is intolerable!

[Scrappy]

Right, our reserves are not the same as they were just a decade ago, nor those of a decade ago any where near the same as the decade before that. Training, budgets, accountability, responsibility, readiness, ability have kept increasing in waves. The reserves and national guard have become citizen soldiers rather than "weekend warriors". Without discounting our active, the reserves have pulled more than their fair share from what they signed up for.
The reserves have been and are being used like never before, but exactly what they are designed to do -- picking up the load the active needs right now. Kinda like private transports being contracted in wartime.

As far as North Korea or Iran, priorities are not set in stone, and as ramses said more or less... you ain't seen nothing yet. We've barely tapped either our industrial or manpower resources... I'm working with 3 guys who are retired but damned well servicable when crunch times hit (lol, just had 2 ladies go from reserve to active in the last year too).