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Army going broke?

Disagreeable

Well-known member
Shame on those guys. They should manage their money better! :roll: I mean, look at how well George W. Bush has handled the finances of the US. He should be an example for them to follow. Oh, wait, I guess he is the example they're following. Link below; my emphasis.

"Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, said last week that in 2004 it cost $4 billion to repair or replace war equipment, but now it has reached $12 billion to $13 billion. "And in my view, we will continue to see this escalate," he said, adding that the Army is using up equipment at four times the rate for which it was designed.

'Schoomaker traced the problem's origin to entering the Iraq war in 2003 with a $56 billion shortfall in equipment. The Army managed the situation by rotating in fresh units while keeping the same equipment in Iraq. Over time, he said, the equipment has worn out without sufficient investment in replacements.

The Army chief said there is too little money available to keep up with equipment repairs. He said the Army's five major repair depots are operating at only 50 percent of capacity, resulting in a backlog of 1,000 Humvee utility vehicles awaiting attention at the Red River Army Depot in Texas and 500 tanks at a depot in Alabama."


http://www.syracuse.com/newsflash/washington/index.ssf?/base/politics-10/1153498196268520.xml&storylist=washington
 

Murgen

Well-known member
He said the Army's five major repair depots are operating at only 50 percent of capacity, resulting in a backlog of 1,000 Humvee utility vehicles awaiting attention at the Red River Army Depot in Texas and 500 tanks at a depot in Alabama."

I would think that they are repairing most equipment in the theatre. How much sense would it make to bring them home to the US, for an oil change?
 

Disagreeable

Well-known member
Murgen said:
He said the Army's five major repair depots are operating at only 50 percent of capacity, resulting in a backlog of 1,000 Humvee utility vehicles awaiting attention at the Red River Army Depot in Texas and 500 tanks at a depot in Alabama."

I would think that they are repairing most equipment in the theatre. How much sense would it make to bring them home to the US, for an oil change?

They've got all the mechanics guarding conveys, or doing sweeps of the streets. My nephew is a wheeled vehicle mechanic, but he's guarding conveys, or was. He was in Kuwait and went into Iraq with a convey most every day, but his unit was one of those they moved in country to try to quell the increasing violence between Iraqis. I do think this is a bit more serious than an oil change, though. They sent our troops off without enough equipment, or heavy equipment, thinking this would be a turkey shoot. Shipping their own equipment or heavy equipment was expensive. They wanted a cheap war. Hasn't happened that way. There's no telling how many young men died because of the lack of planning or understanding the enemy from the Bush Bunch.
 

memanpa

Well-known member
DIS your nephew is over there already??
last you said he was still in basic!!!
what division? heck he might even be in the bunch that knew my nephew?
talk to me girl !
I BET he is proud of you!!!!!! hope your spouting off does not cause him any harm!
 

Disagreeable

Well-known member
memanpa said:
DIS your nephew is over there already??
last you said he was still in basic!!!
what division? heck he might even be in the bunch that knew my nephew?
talk to me girl !
I BET he is proud of you!!!!!! hope your spouting off does not cause him any harm!

:roll: I have a nephew, or I guess a great nephew (niece's son) there now. He was in Kuwait. They moved them into Iraq several weeks ago. I haven't heard anything about him since the move. My nephew (sister's son) is in Basic. He'll graduate in September, then go to airborne school.

You think I'm giving aid to the enemy, how about this elected Congressman from Minnesota? A Republican, at that! Link below; my emphasis.

"“We learned it’s not safe to go anywhere outside of the Green Zone any part of the day,” he said.
The movements of Gutknecht and four other congressmen were carefully controlled by security forces worried about abduction attempts by insurgents, he said.
“They realize people like us are juicy targets.”
Gutknecht’s sobering report contrasts with many of his fellow conservative supporters of the war. The Republican National Committee sends out weekly e-mails to the media called “Iraq Facts” that paint a picture of steady progress toward stability and Iraqi self-governance. And conservative commentators have consistently said that the American people are being provided an overly dire picture of the Iraq war by the mainstream media.
“While a little bit of progress has been made, there’s an awful lot that needs to be done,” Gutknecht said.
Gutknecht was critical of some of the “spin” from Bush administration officials in the Pentagon and the State Department. He specifically pointed to past statements that a few hundred insurgents were causing the violence in the Iraq. Military officials say they’ve captured 10,000 even as the insurgency continues unabated.
"That’s a far cry from what we were told originally,” he said. “... All of the information we receive sometimes from the Pentagon and the State Department isn’t always true.
The American troops, however, are performing heroically, he said.
“They’re doing a terrific job in enormously difficult circumstances.”
That doesn’t mean that more troops could win the war.
What I think we need to do more is withdraw more Americans,” he said. It’s up to Iraqis to fix Iraq, and they need to do it soon, according to Gutknecht.
“I think we’re at a very important tipping point, and the next six weeks is going to be critical,” he said, although he declined to elaborate on the dangers facing Iraq if the situation doesn’t improve by September. “... I don’t want to predict what will happen if things don’t get better.”
He did say that the patience of average Americans might begin to wear thin if improvements don’t come soon.
Americans are going to start losing faith in this thing,” he said.


He says it differently, but he says much the same thing I'm saying: that the Pentegon is lying to us about progress. He says Americans are turning ther backs on this war. He says we should withdraw troops. Is he giving comfort to the enemy? How many more Americans should die before we get out? And we will get out.

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/local/local_story_200013136.html?start:int=15
 
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