Tuesday, December 05, 2006
They may have to walk when they leave Iraq
The US Army, badly used, badly supported and sadly in need of rehabilitation after 4 years of Li'l Georgie's Glorious War in Iraqistan. The Washington Post has the details on the slow destruction of of the Army's equipment.
But as the war has continued, Army leaders have recognized that they cannot afford to wait for a drawdown of troops before they begin overhauling equipment -- some of it 20 years old -- that is being used at extraordinary rates. Helicopters are flying two or three times their planned usage rates. Tank crews are driving more than 4,000 miles a year -- five times the normal rate. Truck fleets that convoy supplies down Iraq's bomb-laden roads are running at six times the planned mileage, according to Army data.Halliburton, Bechtel, Dyn Corp and so many other well connected corporations got huge contracts to provide shoddy products and slipshod services if they delivered anything at all. The US Army has to scrounge up the funds to keep the basic tools of its trade in working condition and still came up short. Those Republicans sure are good on Nationable Defense and pigs sure do fly good!
Equipment shipped back from Iraq is stacking up at all the Army depots: More than 530 M1 tanks, 220 M88 wreckers and 160 M113 armored personnel carriers are sitting at Anniston. The Red River Army Depot in Texas has 700 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 450 heavy and medium-weight trucks, while more than 1,000 Humvees are awaiting repair at the Letterkenny Army Depot in Pennsylvania.
Despite the work piling up, the Army's depots have been operating at about half their capacity because of a lack of funding for repairs. In the spring, a funding gap caused Anniston and other depots to lose about a month's worth of work, said Brig. Gen. Robert Radin, deputy chief of staff for operations at the Army Materiel Command at Fort Belvoir.
"Last year we spent as much time trying to find available money as managing our program," he said. "We don't want to go into the next rotation . . . with equipment that's at the far end of its expected life."
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