Next time Condi.. or someone else makes a veiled or overt reference to WWII in relation to Iraq, remind them about the sacrifices the American people were asked to make, the rations, the conservation and most of all, the war effort built to ensure the front lines had what they needed.
MR. SNOW: Well, it's -- this gets you into part of the jargon. What happens is that if you also ask the commanders, when the time comes for deployment will you have readiness, and the answer is, yes. A lot of that has to do with whether the equipment is here or in theater -- the equipment is in theater for the most part -- no reason to sort of take stuff out and then put it back in. We're also in the process of seeking funding to continue to improve and replenish equipment. So the really important question is, do you send any forces into battle that are not fully ready, and the answer is, no.
Really?
At present, 15 of the Army's 41 brigade combat teams are in Iraq, along with two of the Marine Corps' six regimental combat teams. About 40 percent of the most modern U.S. ground combat equipment is in the combat zone, leaving troops back in the states short of tanks, armored Humvees, M4 carbines, grenade launchers, night-vision goggles, .50-caliber machine guns and radios, military officers said.The "surge" of five brigades and supporting units will leave 21 Army brigades and four Marine regiments, each with between 2,500 and 5,000 troops, theoretically available for emergencies, Pentagon officials said.
In a crisis, U.S. military strategy calls for these troops to be airlifted near a combat zone and to take up prepositioned stockpiles of armor, weapons, ammunition and rations to sustain them in the first weeks of combat.
But those stocks have been depleted to equip troops in Iraq. That means that, in a crisis, troops could be deployed only to find there weren't enough tanks and machine guns and rations to sustain them in combat.
(...)
Much of the equipment now in such short supply is stacked up at military depots in a repair process that is taking far longer than planners had anticipated.
A Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter damaged in January 2003, as U.S. forces gathered for the invasion of Iraq, won't be returned to service until 2009, the Marines said. It takes, on average, 260 days just to move a piece of heavy equipment like a tank from Iraq back to the U.S.
WASHINGTON - Rushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army's premier training range in California and instead are making final preparations at their home bases.Some in Congress and others outside the Army are beginning to question the switch, which is not widely known. They wonder whether it means the Army is cutting corners in preparing soldiers for combat, since they are forgoing training in a desert setting that was designed specially to prepare them for the challenges of Iraq.
Army officials say the two brigades will be as ready as any others that deploy to Iraq, even though they will not have the benefit of training in counterinsurgency tactics at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., which has been outfitted to simulate conditions in Iraq for units that are heading there on yearlong tours.