The So-Called Surge and Troop Strengths

"The Army strives for a "rule of threes": for every combat unit on a mission, a second is recovering and a third is preparing. But today, more than half the Army's fighting units are deployed abroad…

…Deep inside the Pentagon...a nightmare scenario hangs in the air, unmentioned but unmistakable. With 140,000 U.S. troops tied down stabilizing Iraq, 34,000 in Kuwait, 10,000 in Afghanistan and 5,000 in the Balkans, what good options would George W. Bush have if, say sometime next spring, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il decided to test the resilience of the relatively small "trip-wire" force of 37,000 American troops in South Korea…

…America’s military has been shrinking for the past 35 years...All four services have been cut in strength, and leaders of both parties have overseen this decline. President Bush's father reduced the number of Army divisions from 18 to 14; Bill Clinton cut it further, to 10...The Bush team's vision for the U.S. Army involved making it learner, faster, more efficient and more open to change…" – TIME ‘03.

The impression I had was that the surge amounted to 30,000 more troops. However, I think that means all troops and not just "combat” troops. I have heard before that if the military has around 1,000,000 people, somewhere around 1/2 are support personnel. So, if there are only 500,000 "combat" troops and they are supposed to have an equal amount at home to rest and recuperate as they do at war, plus taking into consideration the other commitments such as Korea and Japan, etc., you have a better idea of what is really being asked of the troops.

"In Washington, Pentagon officials urged patience...But Pentagon planners privately expressed concern. 'We don't have enough troops,' one said. 'It would take another 100,000' to properly protect Baghdad."

(posted 8-22-07, karennkc): The IRR is made up of people who have fulfilled their commitment to the service and have moved on to start new careers, new lives. The Reserves and Guard are supposed to be part time. This system was designed for contingencies, emergencies, not to remove the burden of service from everybody else.