"The American force structure is broken," Hagel says. "Everything's breaking down. We're chewing up our people."

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said the U.S. Army is ``about broken'' from the Iraq conflict and cast doubt on whether the military could or should boost the number of troops in the country.

``There really are no additional troops'' to send, Powell said on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' program. ``The current active Army is not large enough and the Marine Corps is not large enough for the kinds of missions they are being asked to perform.''

Powell, 69, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War and the nation's chief foreign policy official during President George W. Bush's first term, said the war has made the U.S. ``a little less safe'' because it has limited the military's ability to respond to another crisis.

The Pentagon's reliance on volunteers from the Army Reserve for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan risks creating a "broken force," the reserve force's commander warned his superiors in a December memo, and he urged a wider call-up of reservists to active duty.

In his memo, Lt. Gen. James Helmly stated that the Army Reserve is no longer able to meet its commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor can it "reset and regenerate" units for future missions.

Four years after the invasion of Iraq, the high and growing demand for U.S. troops there and in Afghanistan has left ground forces in the United States short of the training, personnel and equipment that would be vital to fight a major ground conflict elsewhere, senior U.S. military and government officials acknowledge.

More troubling, the officials say, is that it will take years for the Army and Marine Corps to recover from what some officials privately have called a "death spiral," in which the ever more rapid pace of war-zone rotations has consumed 40 percent of their total gear, wearied troops and left no time to train to fight anything other than the insurgencies now at hand.

...described as "stark" the level of readiness of Army units in the United States, which would be called on if another war breaks out. "The readiness continues to decline of our next-to-deploy forces," Cody told the House Armed Services Committee's readiness panel last week. "And those forces, by the way, are . . . also your strategic reserve."

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

was asked last month by a House panel whether he was comfortable with the preparedness of Army units in the United States. He stated simply: "No . . . I am not comfortable."

"You take a lap around the globe -- you could start any place: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela, Colombia, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, North Korea, back around to Pakistan, and I probably missed a few. There's no dearth of challenges out there for our armed forces," Pace warned in his testimony. He said the nation faces increased risk because of shortfalls in troops, equipment and training.

In earlier House testimony, Pace said the military, using the Navy, Air Force and reserves, could handle one of three major contingencies, involving North Korea or -- although he did not name them -- Iran or China. But, he said, "It will not be as precise as we would like, nor will it be on the timelines that we would prefer, because we would then, while engaged in one fight, have to reallocate resources and remobilize the Guard and reserves."

1. Our military end strength was gutted.  I don't know about the total DOD numbers but they're similar to the Air Force numbers I do know.  The Air Force was reduced from 535,000 people in 1990 to only 355,000 in 2000.  You can't cut a workforce by 37%, pile on more responsibilities and not expect something to start squeaking.

2. The Chicken Little crowd should be reminded that we have only 6% of our military in Iraq -- that's 125,000 of over 2.2 million active and guard/reserve members.  Even fewer in Afghanistan where NATO has picked up some slack. 

3. Hagel is right.  Force structure (vehicles & equipment) is broken and breaking down.  Almost all of that has to do with the enviroment they're operating in.  Ground vehicles in particular (HuMVEEs, personnel carriers, etc) are being eaten up in a desert environment and maintenance is a real chore.  Electronic equipment is also being replaced at a high rate.  We had exactly the same problem for similar reasons in South East Asia -- nothing new here and the kids keeping these things operational are great.

3. Powell is also right.  Because of the drastic cuts in end strength and no reduction in missions or responsibilities, the Army and Marine Corps are in a tight training-deployment rotation.  That's why more are being added this year.  he's also right about the missions - we're a fighting force and were never designed for the peacemaking and peacekeeping missions that run ancillairy to the training mission.  Once the gutless cowards at the UN left who should have been doing that, we had no choice but to take that on to keep the training mission stable.

4. The "source" is right about the "death spiral" too because equipment is wearing out faster than it's being replaced.  Additional people for the Army and Marines will mitigate those issues somewhat.  Yes, they're training for insurgencies...so what?  Any idiot who understands the new world of asymetric warfare knows that's what we'll be facing for the next twenty years or more so why is that a bad thing?

4. General Pace is also right for all the reasons above. The military was whacked almost to impotency to claim a "peace dividend" during 1990-2000 and now we're paying for it.  We used to be manned at a one and half war level.  Pace has done a great job of getting Congress to understand this and now they need to put more money where their mouth is--quit bitching about shortages and FIX them!

Every time anyone from Congress goes to Iraq they see the finest military force on the planet doing a great job under some tough conditions.  They're volunteers, re-enlisting at record rates, and the guys I work with look forward to returning.  Most have made some good friends among the Iraqis getting to know them and their families.  Sure it's tough on them and their families but it's what they do and they're proud of it.  So am I. 

Actually, the armed services could always use more people.  Look into how many contractors the military now uses (I know because I am one) instead of military or civil service employees.  They gutted themselves and don't have enough people to do simple stuff anymore so they get beltway bandits to fill the void at billions of dollars a year.  This trend began in 1992-93 when Congress demanded more "efficiencies" from the military.  Go figure...

I'd like to see all student loans for doctors and lawyers tied to mandatory public service in rural or inner city duties as a condition for receipt as well.

If they're LOANS then you have to pay them back.  And I had to work my ass off at two jobs while in law school because the student loans didn't cover all my tuition and books.  If I had been offered grants in exchange for working in a rural community (because we all know there's SUCH a shortage of lawyers out there) as a public interest lawyer of some sort with a guaranteed income however miniscule - such as in legal services - I would have jumped on it.  But then, who's going to compensate all those newbie lawyers working in distant Appalachia?  The vast majority of lawyers (over 68%) are self-employed.  You have to scramble for business and there's nothing to stop people from discharging your well-earned fees in bankruptcy (I got screwed over for over $16,000 once by a client who made far more money than me.  Almost went bankrupt myself).  Come to think of it, she was a Capitol Hill cop ... ha, ha!

Anyway, bad idea for lawyers. 

Then, of course there's the obvious.  In a draft with no exemptions, everyone would get to share the load, which now is distributed more heavily with rural Americans, many who are there for the tuition money and because jobs in rural America are drying up as family farms, mining and timber work disappears. 

There's a lot to be said about a draft and I'd support one.

The military should exist and be managed in order to enable every soldier to fulfill their honorable mission in the service of the great American cause worldwide.  Unfortuantely, the greed, corruption and idiocy of the failed Bush administration has robbed the services of their rightful ability to make the world a better place through their service.  The failing is with the leadership, the dedication of the troops has only gotten stronger.

DOD Manpower levels at Table 7-5: http://www.dod.mil/c...

I find it amazing that our Congress can't update the votes realtime so we, the People, can figure out what's going on.

More than 100 Iraqis died in bomb attacks on Thursday, including 60 slaughtered in a popular market in Baghdad in the deadliest violence in the city since the start of a huge US security crackdown.***

The attacks were carried out shortly after 43 Iraqis were slaughtered and more than 80 wounded in coordinated bombings hitting another market in the Shiite town of Khalis, north of Baghdad.
***
Thursday's death toll pushed to more than 300 the number of Iraqis slain in the worst 48-hour bout of violence in months, ***

And John McCain says there are safe parts of Baghdad.

The first car bomb targeted the market, the second blew up near a court house, a third at a new army base under construction and a fourth blew up in an ambulance, a security source said.

At least nine mortar attacks were also reported in residential areas while two roadside bombs exploded in a main street near the market...

See also this cite:
http://www.alertnet....

Meanwhile, the administration's mouthpieces continue their spluttering nonsense:

The United States on Thursday rejected Saudi Arabia's charge that Iraq is under an "illegitimate foreign occupation" and said U.S. troops are there at Iraq's invitation, under a U.N. mandate.

"It is not accurate to say that the United States is occupying Iraq," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.