US Army speeds up expansion October 12, 2007
Posted by franklittle in The War On Terror, US Politics, United States.trackback
Interesting little piece from the AP wires I came across on Mother Jones. US military leaders have announced that they intend to increase the size of the US Army by 74,000 extra soldiers by 2010. This is two years ahead of the planned deadline of 2012. To put that figure in context, this would give the US a standing ‘active’ army of 547,000, so we’re talking about an increase of somewhere in the region of 15%.
One of the initiatives they plan to take to assist this plan is to give members of the National Guard $2,000 per recruit for every person they bring into the active duty Army. Sign up a friend, get a two grand bonus. What a deal. Worth noting that the US military has add to offer better and better deals to maintain recruitment figures. I seem to recall a figure of 80,000 recruits a year simply to maintain existing troop commitments, but I could be wrong on that.
Yet at the same time as this expansion is being speeded up, General Petraeus, in charge of the ’surge’ in Iraq, is claiming they will soon be able to reduce US troop strength in Iraq.
Maybe he’s lieing, and maybe they figure they’re going to need those troops elsewhere.
More likely it’s part of the backlash against Rumsfeld and his ideas for the military.
Sabre rattling at Putin too?