"…consider for a moment the peculiar lack of tanks and armored Humvees in the Fort Hood motor pools. An acute and worsening equipment shortage has robbed soldiers of stateside training opportunities and decimated the readiness of units that have not gone to Iraq or Afghanistan."
A lengthy look at the strains–including three years needed to replace shot-down helicopters–that the Army is going through. Clearly, improvements are needed across the board.
Meanwhile, even as the surge shows some results, there are many contradictions at play in Iraq:
"If the insurgents are to be defeated, it will have to be by local tough guys in town after town, as happened in the American West in the 1870s. These guys will likely be more ruthless than we would like. But if we don’t let them establish some control—and give them help in maintaining it—any strategies for phased withdrawals or grand political bargains or international constabularies will be irrelevant."
Via The Elephant Bar
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 