Reserved

Earlier there was the report that military reservists in Colorado were given a serve-or-Iraq ultimatum. The New York times has an article telling us why.

As military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq continue with no end in sight, General Helmly said he was increasingly concerned that a growing number of soldiers with critical specialties that are contained mainly in the reservist ranks will exhaust their two-year stints, making it increasingly difficult to fill the yearlong tours of duty that have become standard. The skills include civil affairs and truck driving.

"The manning-the-force issue for me is the single most pressing function I worry about," General Helmly told reporters at a breakfast meeting.

Asked after the breakfast how concerned he was about the risk to the Army Reserve of running out of certain specialists who could be called up involuntarily, General Helmly said, "Sure, I'm concerned. There's a risk."

Of the 205,000 members of the Army Reserve, about 43,500 are mobilized now; 22,600 of those are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan or the Persian Gulf.

General Helmly did not say when the Army might begin to run out of some reservists to call to active duty, but the average mobilization for members of the Reserves throughout the military has increased to 342 days this year from 156 days in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

General Helmly's cautionary comments echoed a major finding of a report issued this week by the Government Accountability Office, formerly the General Accounting Office. That report concluded that if the Department of Defense's mobilization policy restricted the time that reservists could be called to active duty, "it is possible that D.O.D. will run out of forces." General Helmly said he had not yet seen the report.

Also of note yesterday was a Kerry speech in which he stated that Bush would be calling up even more reservists, but was waiting until after the election to do so he does not hurt his chances. Calling up more troops now would show people that Bush not only made mistakes, but also that he admits to it. By waiting until after the election it shows he is purely motivated by politics and not the actual safety of our troops. Either way, Bush has to deny the report at this point. Oddly enough, the Pentagon, one of the sources for the claim declines comment.

It becomes clearer and clearer how badly Bush has mismanaged this war, and moves like this only echo that sentiment.