From: Ida Heath (spike@defuniak.com)
Date: Sun Jul 04 2004 - 09:59:18 PDT
Steve,
I agree with some of what you say but not all of it. Reality, you say
reality? Reality is that this country was attacked on 11 Sep 01. Remember
that when more than three thousand died within an hour or so? and you say
"starting up a war" Come on Steve you can do better than that. Remember who
refused to take bin laden when we had the chance?
Maybe you would rather fight the war against terriorism right here on the
streets of your home of record, because if we don't fight it there we will
definitely fight it here.
War is just that, war. You ever read the contract or take the oath those
military personnel did? I have.
I just wish and pray every day that out Commander in Chief will do more of
those stunts you refer to as "carrier landing PR stunts"
Are you familiar with all the items that Kerry voted against yet he voted to
increase the UN budget by a cool 800% ?
Just so this post is MV related for sure, I have three M37's and money that
I want to trade for a Humvee in case anyone is interested.
sonny@defuniak.com
Sonny
----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Grammont <islander@midmaine.com>
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] Off Topic: Nat'l Guard Redeployment
> Some comments...
>
> >Growing up my impression was that the Guard
> >was here to help with domestic problems and Possibly to relieve active
> >duty forces so that those forces could go fight an action..
>
> That is the main role of the NG, but now a days it is often more theory
> than practice. However, the fine print basically states that NG can be
> deployed anywhere at any time. I'm not exactly sure what the limitations
> are, but judging by what has been going on for the past 2 years, there
> don't appear to be many that can't be overcome by the Pentagon.
>
> The NG has been a part of external active duty military ops for probably
> as long as it has existed. Many of the initial field divisions of WWII
> were mobilized NG units. I'm not sure about Vietnam, but with the draft
> in place and the relatively small commitment (compared to WWII that is!)
> there wasn't as much need to scrounge up personnel as there is with
> today's "volunteer" army (it is much less that now than it was 2 years
> ago). Yes, the 1st Gulf War saw many NG units fully mobilized and
> deployed. In fact, Desert Storm was delayed in part due to inadequate
> readiness levels of some of those units. Meaning, until they had a
> couple more months of training they were deemed unfit for frontline duty.
> Note that this isn't a criticism of the NG units, rather of starting up
> a war without inadequate troops at the ready (sound familiar?).
>
> >I have found it really odd that the NG has been sent to Iraq to fight a
> >war when we have troops all over the world who ARE trained and equipped
> >to do so who have not been.
>
> It is inadvisable, from a military strategy standpoint, to take all your
> 1st line troops and lump them into one spot at one time. In fact it
> might be the first lesson in the course "How to Avoid Military Blunders
> 101" :-) The US has many small, medium, and large military commitments
> all over the world and can not simply pack up all active army troops and
> replace them with those who are not familiar with the theater, tempo of
> active duty, 1st line equipment (remember many NG units use yesterday's
> Army castoffs), etc., etc. Redeployment is also very expensive.
>
> When Congress asked how many troops were needed for a possible war with
> Iraq the number given by then Secretary of the Army was deemed "nonsense"
> by Rumsfeld. The reason is that number, roughly 3 to 4 times what we
> have in theater now, was absolutely impractical without a reinstatement
> of the draft or a large scale mobilization of NG troops. Since either
> one would have caused the American people to ask harder questions about
> why war was necessary, what the strategy was, and how the Powell Doctrin
> was going to be satisfied, Rumsfeld simply gave the boot to those who
> said it couldn't be done "on the cheap". Reality has already shown that
> Rumsfeld, and his deputies, were wrong and the military professionals
> were right. 130,000 troops is not enough to win the war (for it has not
> ended, despite the carrier landing PR stunt saying it was) and the
> military is not currently manned and resourced enough to sustain 130,000
> troops in high tempo active military ops along with Afghanistan and other
> static theaters.
>
> Rumsfield, BTW, is a big supporter of small sized military forces. That
> theory works fine with a minimal active military agenda, but it
> completely falls apart when faced with wars in two vast countries with
> hostile populations at the same time. In the words of a LT COL friend of
> mine at the Pentagon, "I can't believe how bad we are $*&%ing this up".
>
> >I know this is off topic, and apologize for it, but I've been wondering
> >about this since we went back into Iraq. And this list tracks military
> >matters closely. I have not seen anything about this in the press or on
> >the radio. I know our forces were down sized tremendously but why are NG
> >troops being killed when we have active duty troops available all around
> >the world? And to get home and be 're-deployed'...
>
> The standard deployment rotations were well thought out in terms of
> logistics, morale, and expense. The failure of the initial Iraq war
> "plan" (if it can be called that) has necessitated that these very well
> founded principles be chucked out the window. I say failure of the Iraq
> war plan because we were supposed to have pretty much no troops in Iraq
> at this point and a passive, friendly populace. In reality, the force
> needs to be at least double its current size, if not triple as the Army's
> initial estimates called for.
>
> Solutions? Withdraw from Iraq in military failure (not an option!), drop
> the "my way or the highway" attitude so allies will cough up large
> numbers of troops so we don't have to, institute a limited draft, large
> scale mobilization of the NG (which is, in a sense, a draft), or back out
> of long standing security commitments in other parts of the world so the
> resources there can be redeployed to the ME. Yup, none of these options
> are all that good, but that is what happens when politicians try to run
> wars instead of the military professionals.
>
> Steve
>
>
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