Progress Report:

by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin

September 14, 2006


NATIONAL SECURITY
An Army of None

Over the last several weeks, President Bush and his allies have launched a new offensive against political dissent. On Tuesday, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) wondered aloud if critics of the President's national security policy are "more interested in the rights of terrorists than protecting the American people." (White House Press Secretary Tony Snow defended Boehner, telling CNN he was "asking tough questions.") Earlier, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld compared critics of his policies to people “in the decades before World War II” who believed Hitler “could be appeased” and “argued that the fascist threat was exaggerated -- or that it was someone else’s problem.” (A poll yesterday found that more than 60 percent of Americans think this kind of comparison is inappropriate.) The rhetorical fireworks are intended to obscure severe problems in our national security posture, in particular military readiness. But attacking political opponents is far easier than addressing the fact that "strategic miscalculations and gross mismanagement of resources have pushed the all-volunteer force perilously close to its breaking point."

ARMY IS RUNNING ON EMPTY: In today's Washington Post, American Progress's Lawrence Korb and Peter Ogden note, "In July an official report revealed that two-thirds of the active U.S. Army was classified as 'not ready for combat.' When one combines this news with the fact that roughly one-third of the active Army is deployed (and thus presumably ready for combat), the math is simple but the answer alarming: The active Army has close to zero combat-ready brigades in reserve." Worse, "one-half of all Army units (deployed and non-deployed, active and reserves) received the lowest readiness rating any fully formed unit can receive." The readiness problem reflects the fact that every "available active-duty combat brigade has served at least one tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, and many have served two or three." According to a report released yesterday by Reps. Dave Obey (D-WI) and John Murtha (D-PA), "The U.S. Army’s preparedness for war has eroded to levels not witnessed by our country in decades."

THE EQUIPMENT SHORTFALL: The Army is facing a "$50 billion equipment shortfall." Obey and Murtha report, "Thousands of key Army weapons platforms -- such as tanks, Humvees, Bradley Fighting Vehicles -- sitting in disuse at Army maintenance depots for lack of funding. "This is having a snowball effect on its readiness issues because the Army is "compensating" for its shortfall by "shipping to Iraq some of the equipment that it needs to train nondeployed and reserve units."

THE RECRUITING QUANDARY: The Army is also struggling to meet its recruiting goals. For example, "After failing to meet its recruitment target for 2005, the Army raised the maximum age for enlistment from 35 to 40 in January -- only to find it necessary to raise it to 42 in June." Also, the Army has been forced to lower its standards for basic training. "Through the first six months of 2006, only 7.6 percent of new recruits failed basic training, down from 18.1 percent in May 2005." Even more alarmingly, "a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that thousands of white supremacists may have been able to infiltrate the military due to pressure from recruitment shortfalls."

THE FUNDING SHORTFALL: According to a letter signed by military experts last month, "Restoring the Army’s readiness requires additional funding, but, inexplicably, the administration is underfunding the Army." Specifically, "the Office of Management and Budget recently cut the Army’s request for FY06 supplemental appropriations by $4.9 Billion." In July, "General Schoomaker, the Army's Chief of Staff, testified before Congress that the Army needs an additional $17 billion in fiscal year 2007 to repair and replace equipment used for war." Obey and Murtha have requested President Bush "prepare for submission to Congress an emergency funding request to cover the Army readiness and equipment maintenance shortfalls." He has yet to do so.