COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: General
Army Planning Four More Years in Iraq Is `Folly,' Senator Says
Robert Schmidt, Washington Post
August 21, 2005
The U.S. Army's worst-case scenario plan of keeping more than 100,000 soldiers in Iraq through 2009 is ``folly,'' said Chuck Hagel, a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.``There's no way America is going to have 100,000 troops in Iraq, nor should it in four years,'' Hagel said on ABC's ``This Week.'' ``It would bog us down. It would further destabilize the Middle East.''
Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who has been critical of the war, said comments about troop levels in Iraq by General Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, to the Associate Press yesterday were ``complete folly.''
``I don't know where he is going to get these troops,'' Hagel said.
The U.S. has about 138,000 military personnel in Iraq and President George W. Bush has said the number of troops will be reduced when the Iraqis have a stable government and enough trained security forces to defend the country from insurgents. Some members of Congress have complained that the war is stretching the U.S. military too thin.
In the interview with AP, Schoomaker said the Army's troop estimate is for the ``worst case'' and that the numbers might be lower. Schoomaker said he was confident the Army could continue to supply the current troop level in Iraq for years to come.
Virginia Senator George Allen said on ``This Week,'' that while the Army could provide enough troops, it wouldn't be easy, especially for National Guard and Reserve units.
``Ultimately if we had to, we could do that,'' Allen, a Republican, said. ``It would be a heck of a burden.''
Replacing Units
The Army now is replacing units over two years instead of sending a full complement of replacements every 12 months, Schoomaker said in the interview yesterday. Expanded active-duty divisions, such as the 101st Airborne, will reduce the proportion of National Guard and Reserve troops in Iraq to 25 percent next year from the current 40 percent, Schoomaker told the AP.
Senator Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, reiterated his call for Bush to set a target date for withdraw of all the troops from Iraq by the end of 2006, on NBC's ``Meet the Press.''
Feingold said the date would be a goal, with flexibility to reflect circumstances on the ground.
Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said on the show that the U.S. shouldn't set a pullout date because it would only tip off the insurgents who would wait until American forces left the country.
Any withdrawal ``should be based on conditions not on the calendar,'' Lott said.
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