re: "Not the Problem"

Spook86 at In From the Cold talks about force structure.

Money quote(s):

"(I)ncreasing tour lengths for Army personnel in Iraq will not solve the underlying problem--we don't have enough soldiers (or Marines, for that matter)."

"(F)orce structure decisions made under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton left us with the undersized ground forces we have today. . . . Bush #41 developed a plan for cutting at least six Army divisions from our active forces, and implemented that strategy. His successor, Mr. Clinton, followed it through to completion. As a result, the Army lost upwards of 160,000 soldiers, leaving the service stretched thin as it fights simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

&

"(N)o one has fully explained the decision-making process that prompted such wholesale force cuts. Getting rid of that many Army divisions requires approval from a lot of folks outside the Oval Office. In researching those cutbacks, we've been hard-pressed to find significant resistance to that drawdown, even within the Army's ranks. Many of the retired generals who have recently emerged as war critics were in leadership positions when the cuts were made. Someone needs to ask them where they were when so much combat capability was placed on the chopping block.

Excessive force reductions in years past don't forgive the Bush Administration's mistakes in prosecuting the Iraq War. But they do explain many of the Army's current personnel issues"