New York Times
May 6, 2007

Giuliani, Speaking At The Citadel, Calls For A Bigger Army

By Chris Dixon and Marc Santora

CHARLESTON, S.C., May 5 — Rudolph W. Giuliani called on Saturday for a large-scale increase in the overall troop strength of the Army and the creation of a special force to specifically handle post-combat operations.
Pulled this off the earlybird this morning. I wonder how the candidates (both parties) propose to pay for the creation, equipping, training and sustainment of anything new or super sized given the current public appetite for funding?

Has any of their advisors discussed with them where you are going to get this Brigade/Division/Corps sized element of personnel who are willing to go to places of conflict and discomfort for extended periods (potentially after the military has soured the waters a bit?) when you can't even get State and OGA folks over in numbers to relieve military personnel currently filling those roles? How much are you going to pay this talented pool of nation rebuilders to get them to go for repeated tours? Are you just going to contract it out?

One thing at a time I say - rebuild the military and focus the resources on that task before trying to start something brand new. Build on the existing foundations and perhaps re-tool to fit the new security environment. While speeding up the increase in Army is a great idea, I still don't hear any debate about what its going to take to realize those goals of planned growth in light of retention issues surrounding key ranks.

The political body seems still not to understand that in order to sustain and grow an all-volunteer professional force which absorbs the burden for the other 99% of the population during times of sustained sacrifice (and we pretty much all believe there is more to come) you have to increase their compensation to do so. You have to pay them, train them, educate them and equip them and sustain their families (medical, dental, family services, education) and create other incentives which attract and retain the type of talent needed for the challenges ahead.

If a candidate wants my vote based off of this issue and those surrounding military and foreign policy - they better provide me some ideas with some thought about how they are going to be implemented, not just throw something out there based off some theorist's wish list.