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Casey: Army Strained by Current Demands    [

    Increase In War Funding Sought
    By Josh White and Ann Scott Tyson
    The Washington Post

    Thursday 27 September 2007

$42 billion boost would raise 2008 total to $190 billion.

    Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress yesterday to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the Bush administration's 2008 war funding request to nearly $190 billion - the largest single-year total for the wars so far.

    The move came as Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff and former top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned lawmakers that the Army is stretched dangerously thin because of current war operations and would probably have trouble responding to a major conflict elsewhere. "The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply," Casey said yesterday. "We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies."

    The administration's funding request - which came on the same day that the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for the split of Iraq into three semiautonomous regions - would boost war spending this year by nearly 15 percent and would bring the total cost of both conflicts to more than $800 billion since Sept. 11, 2001, according to the Congressional Research Service. The request comes two weeks after President Bush announced a limited troop drawdown from Iraq starting in December and the continuation of the "surge" troop increase through next summer. In the days since, Democrats have failed to force a shift in policy on troop rotations or the adoption of withdrawal timelines, but the debate over war funding offers them another chance to push for a change in course.

    In a rare sign of bipartisan consensus over war policy, the Senate plan to divide Iraq, conceived by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), was approved 75 to 23, with support from 26 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

    Even so, some Senate Democrats yesterday expressed dismay at the administration's consistently rising "emergency" requests for war funding, calling them "habit-forming" and open-ended, while others said they think the wars are breaking the military. Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, before which Gates testified, called the Iraq war "nefarious" and "infernal."

    "We do not create a democracy at the point of a gun," Byrd said. "Sending more guns does not change that reality. And this committee will not rubber-stamp every request that is submitted by the president."

    As lawmakers expressed concern over the rising costs and the strain on U.S. forces, Gates said he believes it is critical to continue until conditions on the ground permit a larger drawdown. "It's very important that we handle this drawdown in a way that allows us to end up in a stronger position in Iraq in terms of a more stable country, one that is an ally in the war on terror and one that is a blockade to Iranian influence in the region," Gates said. "I don't know what that timeline looks like."

    Gates said the additional money is needed to pay for the continuation of the president's troop buildup in Iraq and to purchase thousands of new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.

    Yesterday's request for $42.3 billion came on top of the $141.7 billion requested in February and a request earlier this year for $5.3 billion for MRAP vehicles. Gates said the new request, to be submitted to Congress by Bush, includes $6 billion to support the Army and Marine units in Iraq; $14 billion for force protection, including MRAP vehicles; $9 billion to ensure that critical equipment and technology are available for future missions; and $6 billion for training and equipment to improve the Army's readiness for future deployments. Another $2 billion would be used for U.S. facilities and to train and equip Iraq's security forces.

    Gates reiterated Bush's concept of a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq, but said it probably would be a smaller force focused on countering al-Qaeda in Iraq, training Iraqi forces and acting as a bulwark against Iran. He said he envisions a long-term force - possibly for many years - of about a quarter of the current U.S. force there, or slightly more than 40,000 troops.

    "We're at a point where the pacing of all of this is really what is at issue, and quite frankly my biggest worry is if we . . . handle this next phase badly, then all bets are off in terms of what our commitments or what our requirements may be in the region," Gates said.

    Casey, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee for the first time as the Army's top officer, expressed deep concern over the Iraq and Afghanistan wars' impact on the service. In an unusual move, Casey had asked for the hearing so he could explain the strains on the Army, according to Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the panel's chairman.

    "Overall, our readiness is being consumed as fast as we can build it," Casey said, explaining that U.S. soldiers do not get enough time at home to train for full-scale combat operations and that equipment is wearing out "at a far greater pace than expected." He added: "I believe we can put this back in balance in three or four years."

    In his testimony, Gates urged Congress to approve the State Department's requests for additional war funding. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte said in the hearing that State will seek more money on top of the $3.3 billion it has already requested.

    "The challenges we face in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere are fundamentally political, economic and cultural in nature, and are not going to be overcome by military means alone," Gates said. "It will be very difficult for our troops and their commanders to succeed without the key non-military programs and initiatives included in the request for the State Department."

    The Senate vote yesterday calling for the division of Iraq into three regions does not force Bush to take any action, but the vote carves out a common ground in a debate that has become more polarized and focused on military strategy.

    The plan envisions a federal government for Iraq, with separate autonomous regions for the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish people. The structure is spelled out in Iraq's constitution, but the Senate measure calls for local and regional diplomatic efforts to hasten the process. "This has genuine bipartisan support," said Biden, "and I think that's a very hopeful sign."

 

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    Casey: Army Strained by Current Demands
    By Gina Cavallaro
    Army Times

    Wednesday 26 September 2007

Chief of staff describes force as "out of balance" in Capitol Hill testimony.

    Describing the Army as standing "on the edge of a cliff," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Ike Skelton probed the Army's top leaders Wednesday on Capitol Hill on their plans to keep the Army together as it heads into its seventh year at war.

    Skelton, who held the hearing at the request of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey and Army Secretary Pete Geren, beseeched the two officials to be forthcoming in what they will need to rebuild the Army, take care of families and the wounded and give deploying soldiers the training, equipment and installations they need.

    "The Army's people are exhausted by repeated combat rotations and your equipment is worn," Skelton said, warning of the strategic risk posed by an Army that may not be able to react effectively to another world crisis.

    Casey, who appeared at the hearing with a truckload of some of the Army's latest robotic equipment and personal protection gear for soldiers, laid out his plans for addressing the committee's concerns in what he called his four imperatives: prepare, sustain, reset and transform.

    But he also bluntly acknowledged his belief that the stretched-out Army would be hard pressed to go charging into another conflict right now, at home or abroad.

    "I am not confident that we could respond as quickly as I would like to," Casey said. "We have a combat-seasoned force, but it would still take longer than I am confident with."

    Casey predicted a future of persistent conflict and protracted confrontation with a variety of state and non-state actors, in addition to an increasingly complex world in which the benefits of globalization share the stage with its drawbacks, namely the creation of "haves and have-nots" and a growth in population that will include a "youth bulge" and a race for scarce environmental resources.

    His job, he said, is to readjust an unbalanced force by tackling the needs of its people, shoring up equipment and growing an agile and adaptable force.

    "Our Army today is out of balance for several reasons. The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply," he said.

    Casey told the committee that by next summer, when a drawdown in the surge forces is expected to take place, the Army might be able to begin a gradual decrease in the number of soldiers affected by stop-loss and that the Army is pumping an unprecedented amount of money into family resources such as child care centers, respite care for parents, fitness centers, chapels and youth centers.

    Casey and Geren were peppered by repeated questions about deployment length and dwell time and whether making the Army larger would mean shorter tour lengths.

    Shorter tours, Geren told Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., "has to be driven by the demands of commanders on the ground. The decision has to be made based on what's going on on the ground. Those decisions cannot be made here."

    His job, Geren said, was to help those commanders get the resources they need, not to make policy decisions about operations in Iraq.

    A "good portion" of the Army's pre-positioned stock, he told Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, was sent to Iraq with the five brigades that made up the surge forces a few months ago, all of which will have to be returned and reset.

    "I share your concern, but all pre-positioned stocks were not consumed. We have some flexibility," Casey told Ortiz.

    The hearing was Casey's first before the House Armed Services Committee since he was sworn in as chief in April. He requested the hearing, according to Skelton, to present his assessment of the current state of the Army provide his insight for the future and lay out his plans for moving the Army forward in the next four years.