Army Allowed To Approach WH Budget Officials By Itself
The New York Times reports that US Secretary of Defense has decided to make life more easy for the US Army:
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is allowing the Army to approach White House budget officials by itself to argue for substantial increases in resources, a significant divergence from initial plans by Mr. Rumsfeld and his inner circle to cut the Army to pay for new technology and a new way of war.
According to the Times some senior officials of the Army are not ‘just’ advocating a growth of 30,000 soldiers, but even of 60,000 to 80,000.
According to a staffer of Rumsfeld, he asked the Army to prove its case: “show me the metrics”. The Army showed him the metrics and, sufficiently proved its point.
In short, it seems that Rumsfeld is – finally perhaps – willing to adjust his plans to ‘modernize’ the US Army.
19 Responses to “Army Allowed To Approach WH Budget Officials By Itself”
In an all-volunteer army, with recruitment sagging, how do they plan on pulling off that kind of an increase? I suppose offering better conditions would help, but I can’t help but think that plenty of young people are wary of the armed forces in part because of news of extended tours of duty, recallment, and the like.
When I was a teen I even thought of joining the National Guard, since it looked like a great way of helping the “greater good” while still being able to lead a civilian life in other fields. At that time the Guard to me was the people who went in and pulled out flood victims, maintained order during riots, and generally helped when things got out of hand somewhere in the country. It wasn’t until the Iraq war that I became aware that the National Guard can actually be called to duty outside the NATION, doing tasks more apropriate of a full blown soldier. If the war had happened then there is no way I would have joined, and I can imagine many current highschoolers are of the same opinion about joining the armed forces now.
Of course they can – the Uniform says U.S. Army.
I feel like some form of national service should be manditory, or at least tied to all government education loads. However, I would hope that the Peace Corps or maybe even the domestic Freedom Corps would be considered suitable alternatives to military service. Still I think something like this would give us the troops we need, and help a couple of more indirect ways.
They can recruit from the autistic, maybe raise the age from 42 to 50, gangbangers and neoNazis. But where is the brave College Republicans, they seem to wage the GWOT from theri keyboards. Pierce Bush would make a fine Army spokesnman. Pierce – Your country need you in Bahgdada, leave Austin to the Liberals and DixieChick lovers.
Lynx,
I think many National Guardsmen were involved in Gulf War I. You never noticed that?
Kevin,
I agree, I remember wishing for the same thing back when I was turning 18 or so and a childhood leg disease kept me out of the Air Force.
Actually they at first were the main spearhead of troops. My ex was saying that back then the main Army regretted the decision to send in the NG due to the fact that 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks a year wasn’t enough real training.
It is about time the US Army stood up and showed they have a pair. GEN Shoomaker had gone to Congress sometime around 23 JUL 2006 to press his case to get an additional $17B for this year, and on 3 AUG 2006 LTG Blum tells the National Guard needs $20B for this year to repair and replace equipment in its 34 brigades. This has been a fight long time coming and I am glad that Rumsfeld’s (and his ‘inner circle’) plans to update by cutting the military were put aside. That 60,000 to 80,000 level may well become the next battle space between Rumsfeld and the US Army – there are a lot of other things to be taken into consideration to field that many people (logistics, housing, pay, medical, etc).
There was one error in that article I was able to see – active duty troops (on the whole) are not getting two years off for every year they spend in a combat theater. The grand plan as it was sold by Rumsfeld/Pentagon was to have the active duty troops get that desired schedule, while Reserves get three years off and National Guard get four years off for every year in theater. That grand plan will change with FY07 for the NG to what their commitments for federal call-ups will be – they get to spend more time in the field.
A lot of people prior to 2002 were giving the same b.s. excuses about the Guard that people mutter about draftees these days. The Guard has shown its mettle and strength through these few years since 2002. With that said, the Guard is not an active unit though the administration and the public like to think otherwise. These guys have stepped up and filled the gaps, but the public itself needs to take the next step and fill the expanding gaps today.
Just one point – the Guard did not send troops to the first war with Iraq. The people today who are in the Guard and have experience from that war had come from active units who were there.
Incorrect ES. I personally had a few friends who were in the Guard and got sent over.
Jan 19, 1991
President Bush signs authorization to extend call-up of up to one million National Guard/Reserves for up to two years; DOD will implement incrementally raising ceiling on 161,887 National Guard/Reserves currently called up to 360,000. The Navy’s authorization ceiling was raised from 30,000 to 44,000, USMC from 23,000 to 44,000.
Jan 22, 1991
Iraqi launches SCUD missile against Israel. U.S. Patriot missile crew had a generator problem, Israeli Defense Forces fired a Patriot missile. SCUD impacted in Tel Aviv killing 3 and wounding nearly 100. U.S. troop strength has increased to 474,000 (Iraqi – 545,000) and there are 165,797 Reserves/National Guard recalled (13,303 Navy, 22,048 USMC).
Jan 25, 1991
U.S. troop strength in the region has increased to 482,000. To-date, 192,965 National Guard and Reservists have been recalled to active duty (14,702 Navy, 22,142 USMC). Fifteen percent of U.S. servicemembers in the DESERT STORM field of operation are Guard and Reserve. (italics mine)
Jan 29, 1991
To-date, 200,948 National Guard and Reservists have been recalled to active duty (15,093 Navy, 22,141 USMC).
War Chronology
Air University Library Publications (just lists publications that has various content)
I stand corrected.
Good for the military, though getting more recruits will be difficult.
Speaking of the military.
Wow, check that out. 482,000 active duty and 192,000 NG/Reserves. They didn’t even have to occupy anthing…
Whoever posted about the Army having problems with the limited training of NG/Reserves during Gulf War 1 was correct. While I wasn’t in theater, I served as support. We were constantly hearing about the reserves requiring as many additional weeks of training as they originally received. Essentially-they wound up being trained all over again before going over.
Ok, so let’s see if I get this (and please correct me wherever I’m in error):
- the Army can get additional funding. Good on them. Considering the equipment and logistics horror stories from the last few years, they need it.
- they can get it from the WH budget group. Uh-huh, so congress is bypassed in favor of the executive taking on another of their roles.
So, Rumsfeld and the WH get to look like the good guys (never mind a lot of the cluster**** was their responsibility to begin with) and by implication, Congress (who aren’t completely blameless) are handed a bigger chunk of the blame for the shortfalls? And the administration cuts Congress out of the loop in their favor again, and without a signing statement this time. Cute.
Re: NG/Gulf I. Scwartzkopf made reference to the ’roundout brigades’ in his autobio. While he includes the caveat that they were conceived for a longer term wars, his review of their readiness (in the context of a short war) was less than glowing.
(I’m answering now because I live on the other side of the globe, like Michael, so I was sleeping while you were all busy thinking)
Tommy I was 10 and 11 at the time on the first Gulf War, so you’re gonna pardon me if I was a little fuzy on the details. All I remember was marches, lots of yellow ribbons and seeing seemingly desperate Iraqi soldiers surrendering to anything that moved and looked American. I didn’t even think of joining the Guard until I was a teen but I moved out of the country before turning 18 so I never really came to that point.
That said I agree with those that say an obligatory national service would be a good thing. In fact, though I don’t really favor a military draft I do think it would have one really good side effect. If all adults had military experience and EVERYONE had a loved one or friend in the armed forces, they’d be much more likely to take an active interest both in the run-up to wars and to the handling of wars. If every family had a son or daughter in the Army you can bet they wouldn’t of taken “Oh, there were no WMDs? My bad” lying down.
Lynx. I was only 12 or 13 at the time of the Gulf War if I recall correctly.
I take that back. I was about 10 at the time of the Gulf War. I knew people who went from National Guard to active duty in their careers and I suppose I must of met some people who were vets of the Gulf War while in the National Guard.
Don,
That’s not exactly the way it works. Instead of Rumsfeld or Department of Defense telling the White House budget folks what the Army’s budget should be – he’s letting the Army convince the Budget office themselves.
In otherwords – they’d have a better chance to get increases they feel they need by cutting out a couple layers of people who look/recommend about the Army’s budget.
At that point, the White House Budget office presents it’s yearly budget to Congress for alterations/passing/voiding, etc.
Um, just a data point: while the Army failed to meet its recruiting quota in 2005, it did succeed in meeting its quota of 80,000 active duty recruitments in fiscal year 2006. See this article from the Tampa Tribune.