America's Broken-Down Media

[marct]

Just off the RCP site.

America's Broken-Down Media
By Ray Robison

According to Mark Thompson, writer for Time magazine, America's army is broken. While it can not be argued that the military can possibly maintain the same state of readiness in war time as it does in peace time, broken has a certain specific ring to it: incapable, demoralized and poorly trained.

Mr. Thompson begins the article, - featured on the Drudge Report - with the story of Private Matthew Zeimer. Brave PVT Zeimer died within hours of his arrival at a Forward Operating Base in Iraq. Thompson describes PVT Zeimer's training before going on to make the case that the surge cut the young Private's training short. In Mr. Thompson's recounting of PVT Zeimer's tale, he essentially was killed because he had insufficient training.

More...

Excellent article with a point by point rebuttal.

Marc

[Shek]

Just off the RCP site.

Excellent article with a point by point rebuttal.

Marc

Marc,

The original Time article does choose a poor metaphor in Private Zeimer to demonstrate that the Army is broken; however, the piece you linked to focuses solely on the metaphor of Private Zeimer and doesn't address the larger issue at hand: the status of the Army. From all the articles that I've read in recent weeks, I think it would be fair to state that the Army as a whole is not broken. The deployed Army is in fine shape (high reenlistement, high morale, equipped well) and doing a tremendous job.

However, the stateside Army could be aptly described as broken, lacking the equipment needed to train properly for upcoming deployments, and without the strategic reserve on standby that we've always had (I don't feel all the concerned about this right now, as OIF and OEF are the shows that are in town right now, but we cannot let this situation remain long-term). We are struggling to prevent the shortages from spilling over into the deployed forces with regeneration happening just in time prior to deployment. The "surge" has stretched the Army to the max, and while I would disagree with a title of the entire Army being broken and agree with the tone of the RCP article about sufficient training versus the Time piece which speaks more to optimal training, the rebuttal misses the forest from the trees IMO.

[Tom Odom]

Guys look at MG Bobby Scales Op Ed in the Washington Times last week. I poasted a link to it on here by the thread on McCaffrey's report.

Neither of those two would be accused of misinformation as this "point by point" rebuttal of the Times ccver story implies by centering on the opening paragraph.

Tom

[tequila]

Is this by the same dude who thinks Saddam was behind the battle of Mogadishu back in 1993?

[Tom Odom]

More from MG Bob Scales

Washington Times
April 9, 2007
Pg. 17

Army Equipment Disaster

Many signs of impending collapse

By Robert H. Scales

During the Cold War the Army stockpiled thousands of weapons and vehicles in warehouses or aboard huge cargo ships in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. These trucks, humvees, tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers constituted our national reserve of weaponry. Soldiers depend on this equipment should we go to war against an enemy outside Iraq and Afghanistan. It's all gone. We emptied the last set in March. In total, nearly half of the Army's fighting equipment is wearing away in Iraq and Afghanistan or waiting forlornly for repair or disposal. Unclassified sources put the total number of broken or destroyed wheels, tracks and rotors at about 6,000.

Most Army brigades are "not combat ready" in part because of equipment shortages. Brigades consist of people and equipment, so the significance of "not combat ready" loses a great deal in translation. If an unready brigade were a ship it would be in dry dock. If it were an aircraft it would be undergoing a complete stripdown and overhaul. Virtually all of our reserve brigades and most of the Army's regular brigades outside of Iraq and Afghanistan fit into this category. The bottom line is that virtually any brigade not in Iraq cannot be equipped for war for a very, very long time.

While the true magnitude of the Army's equipment disaster remains clouded in classification, the anecdotal evidence of impending collapse is anywhere you choose to look. For the first time in nearly half a century the 82nd Airborne Division cannot generate enough combat power to put one of its brigades on strategic alert. A retired general friend visited a division at a very large post that has only 30 of its 350 tanks in working order. One general who daily works on equipment issues in the Pentagon reflected on the past: "Remember, after the collapse of the Soviet Union how the Russians left mountains of junked equipment to rust away in Eastern European motor pools? Well, we're nearly there now."

[slapout9]

The lack of an IRB in the 82nd is very disturbing. When I was in 72-75 we were also tasked with domestic responsibilities, all summer long we practiced civil disturbance training in case of situations like hurricane Katrina happened.
Or more serious war protest happened (Vietnam era).
Hurricane season is just around the corner and it is being described as one of the most "active" seasons in recent history.