Senior Marine Corps official: dubyah has weakend the military and is jeopardizing the war on terror

From the Washington Post:

"We are concerned about gross readiness . . . and ending equipment and personnel shortfalls," said a senior Marine Corps official. The official added that Marine readiness has dropped and that the Corps is unable to fulfill many planned missions for the fight against terrorism.

It seems that our military leaders, who kept telling us that the war in Iraq was not weakening our military, and that we are ready to fight lots more wars wherever they may arise. Well, they were lying.

Now our military leaders want a permanent increase in the size of the military - apparently, we now don't have enough men and women to meet our global needs, all because of the Republicans' wars. But that's not all. The military now wants even more authority to totally screw the National Guard and the Army Reserves. Basically, anyone in the Guard or the Reserves who thought they were already drafted, just wait until you see what they're going to do to you next.

The Army and Marine Corps are planning to ask incoming Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Congress to approve permanent increases in personnel, as senior officials in both services assert that the nation's global military strategy has outstripped their resources.

In addition, the Army will press hard for "full access" to the 346,000-strong Army National Guard and the 196,000-strong Army Reserves by asking Gates to take the politically sensitive step of easing the Pentagon restrictions on the frequency and duration of involuntary call-ups for reservists, according to two senior Army officials.

It is an absolute disaster. Our military leaders are admitting that Bush's war has made us weaker.

And let me just add, I'm really tired of our uniformed military leaders lying to the country in order to cover Bush's ass. They told us they could handle all of these wars. And they lied.

"The Army has configured itself to sustain the effort in Iraq and, to a lesser degree, in Afghanistan. Beyond that, you've got some problems," said one of the senior Army officials. "Right now, the strategy exceeds the capability of the Army and Marines.

H/T to Americablog