From: "Rich Gauszka" 

 Well Bush has managed to break everything else

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4402506.html
WASHINGTON - As President Bush weighs new strategies for Iraq, the Army's
top general warned today that his force "will break" without
thousands more active duty troops and greater use of the reserves.

Noting the strain put on the force by operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere in the global war on terrorism, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said he
wants to grow his half-million-member Army beyond the 30,000 troops already
added in recent years.

Though he didn't give an exact number, he said it would take significant
time and commitment by the nation, noting some 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers
could be added per year.

Officials also need greater authority to tap into the National Guard and
Reserve, long ago set up as a strategic reserve but now needed as an
integral part of the nation's deployed forces, Schoomaker told a commission
studying possible changes in those two forces.

The Commission on the National Guard and Reserves next spring is expected
to recommend policy and budget changes for reserve units.

"Over the last five years, the sustained strategic demand ... is
placing a strain on the Army's all-volunteer force," Schoomaker told
the commission in a Capitol Hill hearing.

"At this pace ... we will break the active component" unless
reserves can be called up more to help, Schoomaker said in prepared
remarks.

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