AP: U.S. military bringing equipment home (evidence of drawdown)?

[Barrett808]

AP: U.S. military bringing equipment home
By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer

BALAD, Iraq - The U.S. military has begun sending thousands of battered Humvees and other war-torn equipment home as more Iraqi units join the fight against insurgents and American units scheduled for

Iraq duty have their orders canceled. In the last four months, the Army has tagged 7,000 Humvees and 17,000 other pieces of equipment to be shipped to the United States to be rebuilt. They then will be distributed among active and reserve units at home, or possibly returned to equip Iraqi security forces.

The military said the shipments will result in a reduction in the amount of U.S. equipment in Iraq, a cut made possible because the area patrolled by American troops is shrinking. The move also anticipates that the number of American troops in Iraq will decline.

"This is all a byproduct of Iraqi forces accepting battle space and U.S. forces being displaced, which has allowed our government to decide not to send more forces," said Col. Jack O'Connor, commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command's sustainment brigade in Iraq.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060621/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_war_equipment

[shadowknows69]

1. Bullshit

I live and work near a base. They're flying stuff out just as much as flying it in.

[leveymg]

3. Humvees normally don't get flown. They're put on trains to seaports.

This seems to be pretty good evidence of a drawdown, and provides some support for the assertion that we're not building up toward a ground offensive into Iran.

[elehhhhna]

2. plus the Iraqi Army doesn't have JACK. WHo's gonna supply them? DUH

[izzie]

4. Need to show something before Nov. and

the national guard have really run out of stuff and who is going to buy them new stuff. The graft alone must take a good percent from the DOD budget

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. "possibly returned to equip Iraqi security forces"

Or possibly to equip US troops in Iraq.

This whole story is a plant by the psyops dept.

[happyslug]

6. Sounds like they need new engines and Transmissions.

While that can be done in Iraq, such major overhaul if better done in the states at shop design to rebuild such vehicles. Remember these are DIESEL engines and can be rebuilt but to rebuild them you need to take them out of the Truck or tank.

The scary point is this means our troops will have LESS FIRST LINE EQUIPMENT and will have to rely on less vehicles (For example use regular Civilian one ton trucks instead of Humvees, which means less ability to go into the sand to get away from any problem). All told this will make the US forces more road dependent than it has been (and thus more lily to be hit by an ambush).