It Is Only Going To Get Worse

by James Glaser
September 29, 2004

Our military is getting pretty thin about now. Many troops are on their second tour in Iraq and some of them have been to Afghanistan too. There are reports that the National Guard will not meet its quota of reenlistments for the first time in years because many troops don't want to go over seas to combat again.

Here is a fine example of just how bad it is getting. "About 800 members of the 98th Army Reserve Division from Rochester, New York will begin a year long mission in Iraq next month." Reported by, KWTX TV.

The 98th normally trains reserve and active-duty soldiers in the U.S., but will now find itself training Iraq's new army. This sounds all right until we learn that the 98th Division is a non-combat unit that doesn't even have its own weapons or vehicles.

Lt General James Helmey, chief of the US Army Reserve said, "This is a hard war and we frankly, inside the Army Reserve have not been properly prepared for it."

American troops have been stretched so thin that we are now sending non-combat troops without any weapons to a combat zone. These troops will have "On the Job Training" (OJT) right in the middle of a war.

We have all read about troops who are lacking the body armor they need and thousands of Americans have been killed or wounded because the vehicles they drive lack the armor protection promised to them, but this is a new low in Bush's War in Iraq.

Without proper training, weapons, and armor, more and more American troops will be killed. More troops will decide that our nation and our government in Washington, does not support them to the level they deserve. More of our trained troops will opt out of reenlisting and many will go where the big money is, private mercenary armies paid for by American corporations doing contract work for the Pentagon.

In the long run the American Military will be hurt by this lack of training and equipment. This is a direct result of the lack of leadership and support for our troops by the Bush administration and people they have put in the Pentagon.


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