Cracks Appear In The Mighty War Machine

[Oilwellian]

<snip>
-- The Iraq invasion caught the Pentagon so short of military cargo planes that it had to hire Russian aircraft to ferry tanks and other materiel. "We had exhausted all of our resources," said Mark Voorhis, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. The United States chartered Russian AN-124 aircraft for 79 missions at a cost of $28.9 million in 2003 and is still chartering them.

-- The Army wore out some 9,000 heavy weapons and vehicles that need fixing and renovating -- "a huge task" for which "we do not have the funds," Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker recently told Congress. If another conflict breaks out, the equipment simply won't be available.

-- The Navy is so short of money it's requiring pilots to fly simulators rather than real jets to practice carrier landings, according to Vice Adm. Charles Moore Jr., deputy chief of naval operations for fleet readiness. To keep aging ships and aircraft going costs $3 billion more every year, but the budget for new ships is down 13 percent. "We're looking very hard to see how we can recover," Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations, told Congress last month.

-- Adjusted for inflation, the cost of military personnel, pushed by tripling health care expenses, rose 16 percent during the past decade. Competing with the private sector to attract and keep good people, the Pentagon offers re-enlistment bonuses as high as $40,000; already, average annual military compensation has reached $99,000 in cash and benefits.

-- To handle new missions, the Army is recruiting 30,000 soldiers and hiring 20,000 civilians to free up troops for combat jobs. Still, it is short of infantrymen. Specialists in high demand for the war on terrorism, infantrymen make up only 4 percent of military personnel. "We're trying to defend the empire with a force about the size of the New York City Police Department," said retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales Jr., former commandant of the U.S. Army War College.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1079251054300490.xml

[King of New Orleans]

1. Trying to defend the empire?

intentional or unintentional, this Maj Gen. Scales is at least honest.

[opihimoimoi]

4. The Cash spiral gets larger and the vortex keeps on sucking

a tragic waste of funds. Someday, there will be no fuel, cash and oil will be limited, only a few planes and ships. gas will be $366 per gallon. and rationed. even the rich will have to wait, combatants will have to ride bikes instead of the H3s.

Farmers will get ALL the gas they want at $2 a gallon.

[jean]

2. I "get" that they want to decimate social programs and bankrupt the US but

why do they want to destroy the military? Isn't this the only thing left to throw their weight around with?

[Warren Stuart]

3. We are in Cahoots with the Evil Empire?

Quick, somebody tell St. Ronnie, maybe he will come down from Mt. Altzheimer and smite the evil ones.

Before you know it, our free press will start to resemble Pravda, then there goes free elections.

Nah, couldn't happen here.

[ugarte]

5. The Pentagon is the biggest money pit

in the history of humankind. We'll all go broke tryin to feed it, but the American public must have their military toys.

[jpak]

6. Bush's I-raq fiasco has destroyed our military establishment

The silver lining may be our new-found inability to fight another "preemptive" war.

Good going Mr. War President...

[caledesi]

7. On the eve of war, he (Bush*) added:

On the eve of war, he added: "When it comes to our security . . . we don't need anybody's permission."

Well you moron, of course no one "needs permission,"but we are now seeing what it's like to "go it alone."

[Renew Deal]

8. We should outsource the military to India.

They have cheaper health care.

[Kimber Scott]

12. What a phenomenal idea!

I wish I would have thought of it! I bet we would have to pay so much for infantrymen, either. You're brilliant.

[tjwash]

9. The "war" president.

He's running his campaign on this. It's already biting him in the rear end.

[opihimoimoi]

10. He is the War Prez if there ever was one for a Democratic Nation.

He makes the whole USA look like shit.

[Jacobin]

11. He's just describing what happens when an empire collapses

I'm surprised anyone is surprised

[bemildred]

14. Entirely predictable going in, and the primary

evidence that in fact they are totally incompetent.
You just wonder how long it can stagger along before
it cannot be covered up.

[Bandit]

13. And two trillion disappears from the books with no one knowing anything

Where is the two trillion the DOD lost? Why doesn't anyone speak up about this major theft?