Today’s Army is out of balance

I found this VetVoice story through Crooks and Liars, and it is just incredible. From VetVoice:

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, Army Vice Chief of Staff General Richard Cody sternly rebuked all those who've been blowing sunshine and spreading baseless happy talk for five years with regard to the war in Iraq. And he was blunt--blunter than I've ever heard him before--about the crisis facing the Army. He even went so far as to hint at the "D-word" in his prepared remarks:

Today's Army is out of balance. The current demand for our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the sustainable supply and limits our ability to provide ready forces for other contingencies . . . Current operational requirements for forces and insufficient time between deployments require a focus on counterinsurgency training and equipping to the detriment of preparedness for the full range of military missions.

Given the current theater demand for Army forces, we are unable to provide a sustainable tempo of deployments for our Soldiers and Families. Soldiers, Families, support systems, and equipment are stretched and stressed by the demands of lengthy and repeated deployments, with insufficient recovery time. Equipment used repeatedly in harsh environments is wearing out more rapidly than programmed. Army support systems, designed for the pre-9/11 peacetime Army, are straining under the accumulation of stress from six years at war. Overall, our readiness is being consumed as fast as we build it.


And then he added the kicker:

If unaddressed, this lack of balance poses a significant risk to the All-Volunteer Force and degrades the Army's ability to make a timely response to other contingencies.

When Cody says "this lack of balance poses a significant risk to the All-Volunteer Force," he's really saying we have three options:

1. We can change course now and save everyone a lot of trouble.

2. We can maintain our current course in Iraq and watch the Army disintegrate as it did during and after Vietnam.

3. We can institute the Draft.

There is not much else to say here--the Army is broken. We are faced with the three options of either pulling out of Iraq, watching the Army disintegrate, or institute the draft. At this point, President Bush is more than happy to allow the Army to disintegrate if it would allow Bush to salvage his "legacy" and blame the Army's disintegration on his successor (who may end up being a Democrat). As for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, how much do you want to bet that he will continue the Iraq war with some form of draft? The longer this war continues on, the worst it will get for our military. And the harder the choice will be between these three no-win options.