Destroying the Homeland from Within

So, as the old saying goes, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omlette, eh? The General in charge of the U.S. Army reserve forces, Gen. James Helmly (the same guy that forced out Brig. Gen. Janice "Abu Ghraib" Karpinski) has written a scathing memo to his bosses on the readiness of the U.S. Army Reserve, basically telling them that a whole chicken farm full of eggs is broken.

That this non-redacted memo (.pdf file) even saw the light of day is, in and of itself, quite incredible. That an active duty General in the U.S. Army would use such scathing terms such as "dysfunction policy" and "broken force" and "creating mercenaries" in describing the USAR borders on amazing.

Here's a link to the lead-in story from the Baltimore Sun that broke the memo. Note that this memo only discusses the reserve component of the Army - we're left to wonder mightly about impact of readiness on the volunteer active duty force.

Over at Lean Left, Kevin does not feel that the burgeoning problems in the Army will result in a draft:

But a draft is a non-starter. The war was sold as an easy war, and even now, the Bush Administration persist in telling the country that things are going well, that the latest campaign is going to be the one that turns the corner, that the end is in sight, and it will be a glorious end. The people are not prepared for a draft, and no lawmaker wants to be the one who starts the process of educating them.

I disagree. Kevin's hoping for a lot of best case scenario's to develop in order to avoid the need for a full-on conscription that isn't cloaked "stop loss", retention, or re-activation nightmares (the "backdoor draft") currently being experienced by active duty personnel. This is another one of those running chainsaws that the Bush administration is juggling, and it's only a matter of time before it falls.

The Pentagon Wing of the Bush Administration has been playing with fire and is placing the U.S. in incredible jeopardy of its ability to defend real national interests. Without presuming any particular hotspot in the world suddenly catching fire (say, have we heard anything from Kim Jung Il recently?), it's hard not to believe that the readiness of our armed forces to respond to another flareup in the world, or even on our own shores, has been tremendously diminished by the military follies of this administration.

From a cave in an undisclosed location somewhere near the Khyber Pass, laughter is heard...