# What IS the Bush admin.'s plan for our too-stretched military? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 27, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829 "2007-04-27T04:22:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/1 "2007-04-27T04:22:12Z")
As I watch our servicefolk being called back to multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guard and Reserve forces being deployed multiple times, Navy and Air Force troops being diverted to do Army duties, new recruits being rushed through training, troops being wounded, PTSD’d, West Point grads and other officers retiring ahead of schedule, and materiel being used up and worn out at a prodigious rate, I am left to wonder … what IS the administration’s plan for our armed forces? Near as I can see, it is to run them smack into the ground. The current trend is clearly not sustainable in the long term. What’s the end game? I don’t think anyone, on any side, wants a draft. But by the end of Bush’s term, our forces will be a sad shadow of what they were in 2000. Is he just trying his damnedest to “win” the war in Iraq before he exits office, and plans to leave the mess of the armed forces (along with other messes) to his successor? As much as I’m opposed to the current war, I’m from a military family and believe in the value of keeping a strong military at the ready … and I can’t see how the current direction serves that military, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican or neither. Anyone have any insights? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/2 "2007-04-27T04:34:30Z")
[QUOTE=toadspittle] **What IS the Bush admin.'s plan for our too-stretched military?** [/QUOTE] Easy. Avoid utter disaster and hand off the problem to the next administration. (That’s Plan B. Plan A was to invade Iran.) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/3 "2007-04-27T04:41:10Z")
None. I doubt he even knows. Who’s going to tell him how bad it is ? And I seriously doubt he’d do anything but dismiss the facts if told, and fire the teller. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/4 "2007-04-28T14:46:03Z")
Bush’s plan? [To extend the surge](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/washington/28prexy.html?ex=1335412800&en=c70bf946fc39340b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss): > [@](#): > > The timelines they are now discussing suggest that the White House may maintain the increased numbers of American troops in Iraq well into next year. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/5 "2007-04-28T18:50:12Z")
Basically, make sure he leaves an impossible situation for the next administration and hope for 2010 and 2012 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/6 "2007-04-28T18:53:10Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] Basically, make sure he leaves an impossible situation for the next administration and hope for 2010 and 2012 [/QUOTE] Very loyal-to-his-party of W, considering he has no political future of his own. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/7 "2007-04-28T18:58:55Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Very loyal-to-his-party of W, considering he has no political future of his own. [/QUOTE] That, or being a good boy so there aren’t scores of witnesses trying to take him with them. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/8 "2007-04-28T20:12:57Z")
I think you underestimate his capacity for self-delusion, if you think he’s merely hoping to “pass it off”. Yes, he probably believes that American troops will be stationed in Iraq on the Day of Jubilee (Jan. 20, 2009). But he believes that by that time, real, clear, and sustained progress will have been made, and the American people will be praising him for his principled stand, and ruefully regretful that we ever doubted him. Historians will be exhausting thier lists of superlatives describing how he stood firm and guided America, even when he was, ah, less than wholly popular. He believes that it is imminent, that all he needs do is stall just a _little_ longer. He is a fool. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/9 "2007-04-28T20:31:20Z")
How long does this go on before it is considered _forced labor_? ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/10 "2007-04-28T20:36:04Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] Basically, make sure he leaves an impossible situation for the next administration and hope for 2010 and 2012 [/QUOTE] I wonder what would happen if we made him stay president. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/11 "2007-04-28T20:37:55Z")
He would regard it as the thanks of a grateful nation. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/12 "2007-04-29T00:48:33Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] How long does this go on before it is considered _forced labor_? [/QUOTE] The Thirteenth Amendment has never been applied to military service. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/13 "2007-04-29T01:19:08Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] How long does this go on before it is considered _forced labor_? [/QUOTE] Until six months after the war is over. :rolleyes: Haven’t enlistment contracts contained words to that effect for the last several decades? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-bush-admin-s-plan-for-our-too-stretched-military/401829/14 "2007-04-29T06:05:02Z")
[Army chief wants to speed up troop hike](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070429/ap_on_re_us/army_chief_iraq_2) > [@](#): > > The Army’s new chief of staff said Saturday he wants to accelerate by two years a plan to increase the nation’s active duty soldiers by 65,000. > > The Army has set 2012 as its target date for a force expansion to 547,000 troops, but Gen. George Casey said he told his staff to have the soldiers ready earlier. > > “I said that’s too long. Go back and tell me what it would take to get it done faster,” > … > Defense Secretary Robert Gates in January said he was recommending to the president that the Army boost its active duty soldiers by 65,000 to 547,000. Casey said about 35,000 of those additional soldiers are already in place. So the army already has over half the additional 65,000 army troops they need, but it’ll take til 2010 ar 2012 to get the other half? That doesn’t seem to make much sense.