Rumsfeld declares force is not broken after critical reports
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday rejected two new reports – including one ordered by his own office – warning that the Iraq war has strained the Army to the breaking point.
In an “interim assessment” of the Iraq war commissioned by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, former Army officer Andrew Krepinevich said the strain of keeping large numbers of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has reduced the Army to a “thin green line.”
Rumsfeld said he hadn’t read the 136-page report but “it’s clear that those comments do not reflect the current situation. They are either out of date or just misdirected.”
Another report by a panel of former Clinton administration national security officials accused the Bush administration of failing to plan the Iraq war properly, failing to send enough forces to pacify the country and failing to adequately equip U.S. troops.
“These failures have created a real risk of ‘breaking the force’ – a force that is critical to protecting and advancing our national interests,” wrote the group, led by former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The group was asked to do the report by the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada.
Rumsfeld rejected their conclusions, saying the Army had met its goals for recruiting in each of the last seven months even though the goals were raised as part of a plan to boost the size of the force by 30,000.
He added that the Army exceeded its goal for retention – the number of soldiers re-enlisting and officers extending their commissions – in fiscal 2005, which ended Sept. 30.
“The force is not broken,” Rumsfeld declared. Moreover, he said, “It’s battle-hardened. It’s not a peacetime force that has been in barracks or garrisons.”
The Army fell 6,667 troops short of its fiscal 2005 recruiting goal of 80,000 and the Army Reserve missed its goal by 4,626.
In response, the service has added thousands of recruiters and dramatically boosted bonuses for enlistment and re-enlistment.
Under a new defense bill approved by Congress, the maximum enlistment bonus is to double to $40,000 for the active Army and $20,000 for reserves. And the top bonus for re-enlistment is to rise to $90,000 for 16-year veterans.
The Army’s recruitment goal for fiscal 2006, which began Oct. 1, remains 80,000. In the first three months of the fiscal year, the service exceeded its monthly goals, but recruiting is seasonal and the goals rise steeply as of this month.
The Army’s first-quarter recruiting goals account for only 11,000 of the annual goal of 80,000 recruits. And the goal for December – when few recruits sign up because of the holiday season – was a mere 700. The goal for January is 8,100.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said at a news conference held to release the Democrats’ report that the Army’s failure to meet its recruiting goals last year was just “the leading indicator” of a “huge potential problem for our land forces.”
Keeping 138,000 or more troops in Iraq for nearly three years has meant that many have served multiple tours.