| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Dems aim to increase army size |
| 2005-07-13 |
| A team of Senate and House Democrats today are planning to introduce legislation today aimed at significantly increasing size of the U.S. Army. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services (SASC) airland subcommittee, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a SASC member, and Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), both members of the House Armed Services committee, are pressing for the passage of the United States Army Relief Act. The legislation seeks to raise the cap of the Army’s end strength, said an aide to Tauscher. The Army already is working on increasing its troop levels by 30,000. Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, has said on numerous occasions that it costs about $1.2 billion a year for every 10,000 people added to the Army. Both the House and the Senate have called for an increase in troop levels in their 2006 defense authorization bill and it is likely that troop levels will be increased when the conferees meet. This sounds fishy. The only reason I can see the dems pushing this through, is they hope the republicans will pass it, since it seems pro-military, and then slam the republicans and Bush for not meeting the quota. |
| Posted by:mmurray821 |
| #11 Not a bad idea wrt op tempo. Though I'd have to see the science behind the initiative. Hopefully someday we'll have another R'burg summit and I can meet some of you guys and tell you the tales of manpower issues I've seen in my time. Though I greatly dis-like the hidabeast and I know this is just for show, in the end the Corps does need three full size MEF's. I can't speak intelligently on the other branches but my assumption is that they are roughly in the same boat. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2005-07-13 23:03 |
| #10 Destined for Haiti and Liberia. To be trained at the new Army training center in Groton Conn. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-07-13 22:57 |
| #9 Logical question is where do the Dems intend to wage war with those additional soldiers? Iran? Syria? Saudi Arabia? Pakistan? North Korea? Venezuela? ZimBobwe? Red China? France? Massachussets? with or without UN approval? What for? |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2005-07-13 20:39 |
| #8 Logistically, I don't think that they could be trained and housed. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-07-13 19:11 |
| #7 Something very fishy about this. I'm guessing that Hitlery is trying to shore up her national defense credentials. Having a bigger Army would not be a bad thing, but it would get expensive. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2005-07-13 18:36 |
| #6 Dar, You know if it wasn't for the eeeevil republicans and their war for ooooill, the army would be having soldiers out the ying-yang, 'cause we are in the worst economy since the great depression! (/sarcasm) |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-07-13 18:01 |
| #5 What, are they going to propose reinstating the draft *again* (and then try to blame it on the Republicans like they did last year)? The army is barely able to recruit enough soldiers as it is--where, praytell, are these additional GIs supposed to come from? |
| Posted by: Dar 2005-07-13 17:45 |
| #4 Frank G beats me to it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-07-13 17:27 |
| #3 they'll require that all 80,000 be out-of-the-closet gays, transgendered, illegals, or cross-dressers |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-13 17:25 |
| #2 Truth in labeling would call this the Military Procurement Reduction Act. Who needs air cover when you have more |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-07-13 17:22 |
| #1 The Dems are looking to increase the size of the army without adding any funding. This means that funding will have to be removed from the equipment or maintenance budget to pay for increased manpower. If a Democrat is for it, you can bet it will be bad for the nation's defenses. Note that Lieberman is no moderate, despite the media's BS about that topic - he scores consistently in the high 70's in the ratings compiled by the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action, whereas even a RINO like McCain scores in the 30's. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-07-13 17:18 |