Anything the military commanders over there ask for they will get.

That is the answer even though those same commanders don't have enough
troops to permanently base any of them along the wide-open Syrian
border crossings where hundreds of foreign Jihad terrorists have
crossed into Iraq on their way to become suicide bombers killing
Americans and Iraqis alike.

That is the answer even though those same commanders have never had
enough troops to secure the hundreds of old ammunition dumps scattered
all over Iraq, which contain more than a million tons of bombs,
artillery shells, bullets, rockets and launchers.



From The Miami Herald, 7/24/05:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12199306.htm

Why generals won't ask for more troops

BY JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military
correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers.


You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

That idea began with the Bible.

But at the Pentagon, that law for military leaders could be:

If you speak the truth it will make you free . . . free to seek other
employment.

There was a time when the first and greatest loyalty of any military
officer was to the truth, and his obligation was to tell the truth as
he knew it to his superiors, military or civilian.

They still teach it that way at West Point in the honor code that
guides a cadet:

I will not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate anyone who does.

Even quibbling -- any semblance of an evasion of the truth -- can lead
to expulsion from the academy.

Before the invasion of Iraq, when the planning was under way, the
civilian leadership made it clear that this war was going to be done
their way and anyone who got in the way would regret it.

If anyone in uniform needed an object lesson they had only to look at
what happened to an honorable and loyal soldier, Army chief of staff
Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, when he reluctantly answered a senator who
demanded his opinion on how many troops it would take to occupy Iraq.

This was in late February 2003.

Shinseki answered that, based on his experience as the first commander
in Bosnia, that it might take ''several hundred thousand soldiers'' to
occupy Iraq with its 25 million people.

One military commander told me that on that day, when Shinseki said
what he said, the plan called for 280,000 American troops to carry out
the invasion and the follow-up occupation.

The next day that force was reduced by 60,000 troops.

Later the occupation force would be much smaller, well below 200,000.

Well below 150,000 in fact.

The civilians would prove Ric Shinseki wrong no matter what it cost,
and they would do everything in their power to punish him and everyone
who liked him and supported him.

Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, publicly rebuked Shinseki, saying
his estimate was ''wildly off the mark.''

They also made him a lame duck by leaking the name of his proposed
successor more than a year before he was to retire.

Unsecured ammo dumps

When Army Secretary Tom White spoke up on behalf of Shinseki he was
fired.

All the while Rumsfeld and his civilian inner circle kept singing the
same tune:

Anything the commanders over there ask for they will get.

As the younger generation likes to say:

Yeah, right.

If they ask for more troops, they will get the ax.

Ask Army Lt. Gen. John Riggs.

In September 2004 while Rumsfeld and Army chief Gen. Peter Schoomaker
were doing their best to keep Congress from adding more troops to the
Army, Riggs was quoted in a newspaper article (Baltimore Sun, Sept.
13, 2004) that even 10,000 more soldiers would not be enough.

''You probably are looking at substantially more than 10,000,'' Riggs
told the paper.

``I have been in the Army 39 years and I've never seen the Army as
stretched in that 39 years as I have today.''

Riggs had already requested retirement.

It usually takes 60 days for the paperwork to get done.

Two days before that period ended Riggs was told that he was being
demoted to two-star rank and would retire at that rank and pay.

Riggs has appealed.

Meanwhile the Pentagon leadership continues to respond to all
questions about the troop strength in Iraq by singing the old song:

Anything the military commanders over there ask for they will get.

That is the answer even though those same commanders don't have enough
troops to permanently base any of them along the wide-open Syrian
border crossings where hundreds of foreign Jihad terrorists have
crossed into Iraq on their way to become suicide bombers killing
Americans and Iraqis alike.

That is the answer even though those same commanders have never had
enough troops to secure the hundreds of old ammunition dumps scattered
all over Iraq, which contain more than a million tons of bombs,
artillery shells, bullets, rockets and launchers.

Remain mute

No doubt that will still be the answer when the Army and the Marine
Corps have been utterly broken by unending combat deployments that
grind up soldiers and equipment alike.

When the Army cannot recruit enough replacements for those who are
leaving something they love because they love their families more.

You shall know the truth, but if you are a general you must remain
mute.

Try teaching that at West Point.

__________________________________________________________

"Bring 'Em On"

Georgie AWOL Bush

Harry