Thursday, June 05, 2003

THERE IS MUCH TO agree with in this stinging opinion piece found here. Consider if you will:

The Army is still in Bosnia. The Army is still in Afghanistan. By all appearances we will be in Iraq a good long while.

Currently in Iraq are most or all of the 1st Armored Division, the 3d Infantry Division, the 4th Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Division. Four of the ten divisions in our Army. And Rumsfeld wants to cut two divisions? Seems ludicrous to me.
If the Army isn't broken, then why is Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld so hell-bent on fixing it?

From his first day in office Rumsfeld has fixed his sights on the Army - questioning its leadership, strategy and tactics, and its weaponry. He and his principal lieutenants, Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Deputy Secretary Douglas Feith, seemingly found nothing right about America's senior service...

...Oh yes. For the last two years the Pentagon civilians have been trying to whack two full divisions and a corps out of an already painfully thin 10-division Army stretched to the max doing America's business and keeping the peace in nasty places around the globe...

...Even as this is written a third Army division, the 1st Armored, is pouring into Iraq to join the 3rd and 4th Divisions to try to restore law and order. Among those three divisions, which two will Rumsfeld choose to kill and will he wait until they have finished the job in Iraq?

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