Bush To Increase Military

President Bush will go ahead on recommendations from top military officers and ask for an increase in the active duty branches of the military. Since at least part of the reason that the military is stretched is because of overzealous cuts in the service during the 90s, this action is probably overdue.

President Bush said today that he plans to expand the size of the U.S. military to meet the challenges of a long-term global war against terrorists, a response to warnings that sustained deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched the armed forces to near the breaking point.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Bush said he has instructed newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to report back to him with a plan to increase ground forces. The president gave no estimates about how many troops may be added but indicated that he agreed with suggestions in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill that the current military is stretched too thin to cope with the demands placed on it.

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The Army has already temporarily increased its size from 482,000 active-duty soldiers in 2001 to 507,000 today and soon to 512,000. But the Army wants to make that 30,000-soldier increase permanent and then grow an additional 7,000 soldiers or more per year. The Army estimates that every 10,000 additional soldiers will cost about $1.2 billion a year.

I know they really should look at active duty logistics support while they are looking into this. The reserves and guard units provide an awful lot of those services under the current organization. That is at least part of the reason for the burden on those branches. These changes would take years to accomplish, incidentally. They will be of no short-term value.

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3. The American Mind / Bush Considers Increasing Military — December 20, 2006 @ 12:22 am