Friday, March 30, 2007
From the Army Times
We get a report on Gen. Pace's hearing with John Murtha's subcommittee. As has been disclosed elsewhere, all is not well in Equipmentland.
The military is so short of equipment that it will take years after the war in Iraq ends to bring it up to authorized levels, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs told a House subcommittee Thursday.But, the good General also disclosed that when you weren't looking, the Republicans were shortchanging the Army for years before the war.
“It will take end of war plus two years to work off the backlog,” Gen. Peter Pace told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. “Without being able to give you a definite end of war [date], I can’t tell you exactly how long.”
“The vast majority of our Army units here at home are critically short of equipment and personnel,” Murtha said, adding this was leaving some stateside units “at the lowest readiness level.”But some people still think the Republicans are better on national defense. Sort of like thinking that unprotected butt sex will cure AIDS.
Pace acknowledged that figure and noted that the problem has been years in the making. For instance, the Army, he said, was $56 billion short of being fully equipped back in fiscal 2001, before the war began. “Then, you had four-plus years of war,” Pace said.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Post a Comment