Rumsfeld: Troop Recruiting To Increase

Translated: it means as in all abuse models, that there is not going to be a timeline for when the abuse will end. Indefinite works in abuse models, and it is usually the victims who become survivors who have to find their way out of the abuse model. Go Rumsfeld, you're on a roll, a real winning streak as Primo Abuser of the integrity of our valiant troops. And that continued slogan, "those who have already lost their lives, made the sacrifice" isn't justification for continued sacrifice. Duh, remember Vietnam, Rumsfeld..while you didn't go, you were aware from a safe place back home.


Rumsfeld: Troop Recruiting To Increase
Associated Press
February 7, 2005

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday there is no question the U.S. military is being stretched due to fighting a long, hard war in Iraq, but insisted that a heavy emphasis on recruiting and retention should eventually ease the problem.

"It's clearly stressed, but they're performing brilliantly, they're doing a fabulous job," he said on CNN's "Late Edition" - one of several talk shows he appeared on Sunday.

Concerns over stretching the Army National Guard, Army Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve are being addressed with full force, Rumsfeld said, adding that the military is adjusting the incentives and the number of recruiters.

The issue is that the regular Army isn't organized for the 21st century as well as it should be, he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." The problem is being dealt with swiftly, he said, by increasing the size of the Army, increasing the number of combat brigades from 33 to 43 and rebalancing the active force with the reserve components so that the military has the skill sets it needs on active duty.

Of the 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now, between 40 and 50 percent are from the Guard and Reserve. The figure is set to drop to 30 percent for the next rotation, beginning this summer, because combat-ready Guard units have been tapped out.



Rumsfeld said over and over again on the various talk shows, he didn't know when troops would start coming home.

"The president and I, and anyone would dearly love to be smart enough and wise enough to know precisely when our troops could leave," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It would be such a relief for people to know that. It's not knowable."

When U.S. troops can pull out of Iraq is dependent upon the conditions on the ground and whether the Iraqis are capable of managing the security situation. "We're working very hard to see that they can," he said.

When asked why the United States doesn't give Iraqis benchmarks for when it will withdraw, Rumsfeld replied: "Because our country's invested a lot of lives, a lot of heartbreak. The courage of our troops and the sacrifice of those that have fallen and were wounded is important.

"And the idea that you should just arbitrarily say, this is going to happen on that date - think of it. The last administration did that in Bosnia. They said we'd be out by Christmas. Six, eight, 10 years later, not out.

"It is misleading people to think that you know something you don't know. And we know we don't know."

Military.com