OT: Bush BETRAYS US Military

From: Fred Bloggs (nospam_at_nospam.com)
Date: 10/01/04 

Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 13:16:53 GMT

There really should have been a military advocate at last night's debate
so we could watch him choke over the lies, deception, and hypocrisy of
GW Bush regarding "strong unwavering leadership" and sending a "clear
message to our troops". The troops have nothing but *contempt* for this
so-called commander-in-chief who has done an incredible amount of harm
to them.

http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-doc.cfm?doc_name=fs-108-2-199

  July 22, 2004

Has President Bush Honored His Commitments to Our Nation's Military?

Has President Bush Honored His Commitments to Our Nation's Military?

As he campaigned for the presidency in 2000, candidate Bush made a
promise: "my good running mate *** Cheney and I, have a message to all
of our men and women in uniform and to their parents and to their
families: Help is on the way." (11/3/00) Yet, during its term in office,
the Bush Administration has repeatedly failed to deliver for our troops
and their families. From failing to provide our troops the benefits and
equipment they need to lengthy and repeated overseas deployments that
keep them away from their families for long periods of time, the
Administration has neglected the needs of our troops and their families.
In President Bush's own words, "to point out that our military has been
overextended, taken for granted and neglected, that's no criticism of
the military. That is criticism of a president and vice president and
their record of neglect." (11/3/00)

     * President Bush: "I want to make sure the equipment for our
military is the best it can possibly be, of course." (10/16/00)

Bush Administration has failed to provide soldiers with appropriate
equipment and protective gear. Tens of thousands of soldiers deployed to
Iraq were outfitted with Vietnam-era flak jackets incapable of stopping
an AK-47 round instead of the Army's best body armor because the Bush
Administration had failed to procure and provide them with the needed
armor kits prior to their deployment. As of December 2003, nine months
after the invasion and more than a year after U.S. forces were deployed
to the region, 40,000 of the 130,000 soldiers in Iraq still lacked the
best body armor.

While the Defense Department now claims to finally have distributed body
armor in sufficient quantities to protect all troops, the Bush
Administration has still failed to provide other equipment that could
make our troops more secure. For example, more than 10,000 of the 12,000
Humvees in Iraq are currently without adequate armor. The Bush
Administration's Fiscal Year 2005 budget would provide funding for the
construction of 818 new armored Humvees, but provides zero funding for
upgrading the 10,000 vulnerable vehicles already in Iraq. The Army does
not expect a full compliment of heavily armored Humvees to arrive in
Iraq for more than a year. Newsweek recently reported on a defense
consultant's unofficial study of casualities in Iraq, which found that
"perhaps one in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if
they had had stronger armor" on their Humvees. (5/3/04)

     * President Bush: "We will give the men and women in uniform the
equipment they need and the respect they deserve." (3/7/00)

Bush Administration poorly coordinated the invasion of Iraq, leaving
thousands of soldiers with insufficient food, water, ammunition, and
other critical supplies. According to the New York Times, a recent U.S.
Army study "has concluded that American forces prevailed [in Iraq]
despite supply and logistical failures, poor intelligence, communication
breakdowns, and futile attempts at psychological warfare." (7/3/04) The
report, entitled "On Point" and produced by the Operation Iraqi Freedom
Study Group, noted the following failures: ammunition resupply was
"problematic;" "stocks of food barely met demand" and "there were times
when the supply system was incapable of providing sufficient MREs [meals
ready-to-eat] for the soldiers fighting Iraqi forces;" the medical
supply system "failed to work;" and units were unable to obtain crucial
spare parts needed to keep tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles running.

According to the report, Secretary Rumsfeld's Defense Department
contributed to these failures by adopting an ill-conceived "running
start" plan that launched the invasion before all support units and
supplies could arrive. The report notes that this strategy left
commanders unprepared when their mission suddenly changed from
warfighting to securing post-Saddam Iraq, and that "partially due to the
scarce resources as a result of the running start, there simply was not
enough to do both missions."

     * President Bush: "My plan understands what endless deployment
means to young married families in the military." (2/22/00)

Bush Administration has forced thousands of soldiers to accept extended
tours in Iraq. The Department of Defense took five months - from March
until August 2003 - to develop a rotation plan for National Guard and
Reserve soldiers stationed in Iraq. When it finally developed its one
year "boots on the ground" policy, Secretary Rumsfeld told reporters,
"Is it likely that we would end up extending people past what was
announced, namely, a target of not more than a year? No, I don't think
that is likely. If we were to do that - and I don't anticipate it, so -
but we'd have to recognize that the effect of it could be adverse. And
we don't want that effect." (Media Availability, 8/25/03)

Eight months later, Secretary Rumsfeld announced that, because he had
failed to anticipate continuing violence in Iraq, he was forced to
extend the deployments of 20,000 active duty and reserve troops beyond
the regulation one year tour. Some of the units whose tours were
extended were on airplanes ready to leave for the United States when
they were told this news. Moreover, the DoD has announced that it will
shift thousands of soldiers, now serving on the Korean Peninsula, to the
Iraqi theater, where they will serve a minimum of one year. This one
year deployment comes in addition to the time - often several months -
that they have already served away from their families in South Korea.

In addition, the military has continually imposed a "Stop-Loss" policy
in Iraq for the last two years, forcing soldiers who are eligible for
retirement or separation from their unit to continue to serve with their
unit until at least 90 days after the unit's tour in Iraq is over. Steve
Strobridge of the Military Officers Association of America has stated,
"People ought to be aware that we are extracting more service
involuntarily out of the people who have already served...It's a pretty
good indication that someone didn't do their planning that well."
Finally, in a sign of the strain on the reserve component, the Bush
Administration has mobilized nearly 6,000 soldiers out of retirement for
service in Iraq. These soldiers are members of the Individual Ready
Reserve, a contingent not used since Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

     * President Bush: "We must restore the morale of our military."
(11/19/99)

Bush Administration policies have eroded soldiers' morale. Personnel
decisions such as extension of deployments, which Secretary Rumsfeld
admitted are likely to have deleterious effects on the morale of these
soldiers, came shortly after an Army study found that a majority of
troops in Iraq reported that their morale is low, and "nearly 75% of the
groups [of soldiers in the study] reported that their battalion-level
command leadership was poor" and demonstrated a "lack of concern" for
their soldiers. "Unit cohesion," the study found, "was also reported to
be low." A senior Army commander who specializes in morale issues,
speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, "I'd be extremely worried
by these numbers," and the findings should "set off alarm bells."
(Washington Post, 3/26/04) The Pentagon study confirmed the findings of
a survey published in August 2003, which found that a majority of
soldiers reported low morale in their unit.

Bush Administration has ignored troops' mental health concerns. Time
magazine recently reported that as many as one out of every six soldiers
(17 percent) serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom has returned with
psychological damage, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),
depression, and anxiety. (7/12/04) Also troubling are reports that the
suicide rate among troops serving in Iraq is substantially surpassing
the rate in other Army units. Soldiers fighting in any war experience
psychological consequences, but these consequences have been exacerbated
by the Bush Administration's failure to adequately screen for
psychological damage and to respond to diagnoses of mental problems.

Earlier this year, United Press International reported that several
returning soldiers they interviewed had not received required
post-deployment psychological counseling and that some had not even
received psychological screening until months after their return.
(5/13/04) According to a clinical psychologist interviewed for the
article, "the Army is not properly diagnosing or treating soldiers who
have mental problems. Instead, some are pushed out of the Army, making
them feel worse."

     * President Bush: "My plan says we'll make sure we pay our military
a decent wage." (2/22/00)

President Bush's policies have exacerbated financial strain on soldiers.
Another consequence of extended deployments for members of the National
Guard and Reserve is added financial strain. Reservists in Iraq now
comprise a larger percentage of frontline troops than during any other
conflict in history. The almost 200,000 reservists currently mobilized
have roughly 311,000 dependents, according to the Department of Defense.
Upon mobilization, citizen soldiers sacrifice the difference between
their civilian salary and military pay, and every additional day that
soldiers serve means another day without their civilian salaries. Lt.
Governor Cruz Bustamante of California, which has the largest number of
mobilized reservists in the nation, notes that there is "a drastic need
among our military families. As [reservists] are protecting us abroad,
their families are going into bankruptcy, losing homes and cars."
(Operation Home Front press release, 2/11/04)

President Bush has exacerbated this problem with his opposition to
increases in pay and benefits for both active personnel and reservists.
The Bush Administration has:

opposed increases in military pay bonuses. In April 2003, Congress
passed legislation to increase the family separation allowance from $100
to $250 per month and imminent danger pay from $150 to $225 monthly for
eligible military personnel for one year. These combat bonuses are
critical in bolstering military pay while soldiers are away from their
families. The Bush Administration did not request an extension of these
bonuses for 2004 and then opposed congressional efforts to provide such
an extension.

failed to implement a high deployment allowance. The Administration has
not implemented another special pay bonus - the high deployment
allowance - despite its authorization by Congress in the Fiscal Year
2004 Defense Authorization Act. This allowance is designed to relieve
financial burdens placed on soldiers who are frequently deployed for
short periods that keep them ineligible for Family Separation Allowance
and other financial supports.

opposed efforts to improve soldiers' benefits. Finally, the Bush
Administration has opposed guaranteeing National Guard and Reserve
members and their families have access to health care as well improving
the Survivor Benefit Plan, a safety net the military provides to
military families in the event of a soldier's death.

     * President Bush: "One thing I won't do as president is to allow
our military preparedness to slip below levels necessary to keep the
peace." (5/23/00)

President Bush's policies have diminished our military's readiness.
Instead of assembling an international coalition to help share the
burden in Iraq and fully planning for the post-combat reconstruction
period, the Bush Administration has adopted a unilateral, confused
course of action that has demanded sizable and continuing contributions
from U.S. troops. As a result, the Los Angeles Times reports that, "for
the first time, three Army divisions - more than a third of its combat
troops - are classified as unfit to fight." (5/15/04) These units
include the 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, and the
4th Infantry Division. Moreover, "another division that had been due to
return home this spring, the 1st Armored, was ordered in April to stay
in Iraq at least three more months. When the 1st Armored does come home,
it will likely be in the same shape," leaving fully half the military
unfit for deployment.

General Richard Cody, Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, validated
this report, testifying to the House Armed Services Committee that
operations have seriously strained both active and reserve forces: "Are
we stretched thin with our active and reservecomponent forces right now?
Absolutely. We just did the largest move of the Army since World War II.
You can't move 8.5 divisions and 240,000 soldiers without stressing the
force." Moreover, in a recent memo, the Army Human Resources Command's
Chief of Infantry Officer Assignment, Lt. Col. Lee Fetterman, noted that
the Army is experiencing roughly a 30 percent shortage of infantry
officers in combat-ready units around the world: "units are suffering
badly at all grades...we are short infantrymen at all grades, but
particularly at major and lieutenant colonel." (Washington Times, 7/12/04)

     * President Bush: "We're having trouble meeting recruiting goals.
We met the goals this year, but in the previous years we have not met
recruiting goals...And - and therefore I want to rebuild the military
power." (10/3/00)

The Bush Administration's policy failures have strained our National
Guard and Reserve. The Bush Administration's reliance on the National
Guard to provide forces in Iraq "is raising concerns about the Guard's
long-term ability to recruit and retain troops, and it is provoking more
immediate worries in states that rely on the Guard to deal with fires,
floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes," according to the
Washington Post. (6/6/04) As Maine's National Guard state commander put
it, "the current pace isn't sustainable." (Washington Post, 6/6/04)
Furthermore, not only has Iraq drawn Guard and Reserve members away from
disaster response and relief activities, it has also diminished the
number of reservists available to carry out critical homeland security
missions that include air patrol and military facility security.

The Bush Administration has impaired its ability to recruit and retain
soldiers. As a result of the strain on the military, and particularly of
the unprecedented operations tempo of the reserve component, the
military is struggling to meet recruiting and retention goals - despite
the Administration's Stop-Loss policy which prevents retirement-eligible
soldiers from leaving the military during, and for some time before and
after, deployment to Iraq. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported
that, as of May 31, "most reserve components were falling below their
recruiting goals for the year." The Army National Guard is at 88 percent
of its goal, the Air National Guard is at 93 percent, and the Air Force
Reserve is at 91 percent.