Strained by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army will boost its forces by 30,000 through emergency authority it expects to last four years, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker told Congress on Wednesday.
About time.
But Schoomaker, testifying to the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, rejected calls from lawmakers for a permanent increase in forces, saying it would undermine efforts to streamline and modernize the Army. "Right now, I’ve been given the authority by the secretary of defense to grow the Army by 30,000 people ... under emergency powers," Schoomaker said. He said the authority from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was to last for four years.
That’s fine, you can always tweek the numbers later. We need more boots on the ground now.
The Army is already about 11,000 soldiers over the 482,000 troop limit authorized by Congress under the emergency provision the Pentagon invoked, largely through "stop-loss" orders that block soldiers from leaving or retiring and through re-enlistment incentives. Schoomaker told reporters after the hearing the Army would move quickly to add nearly 20,000 more forces, saying, "We want to achieve it as quickly as we can." He said money for the additional troops would come from the $87 billion emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan Congress passed in November. Schoomaker said he wanted the additional troops to be incorporated into the Army’s efforts to transform itself into a lighter, more mobile force for post-Cold War conflicts.
Light infantry, more MPs, etc.
He rejected mounting demands from Republicans and Democrats in Congress to raise the Army’s authorized troop levels, which he said would force the Army to expand permanently before it had made needed structural and operating changes. "What I stress again is we should not make a commitment for a permanent end-strength (troop) increase at this time," Schoomaker said. He said that would result in the kind of bloated, poorly trained force that plagued the Army in the 1970s. |