IS RUMSFELD DESTROYING OUR MILITARY? WILL WE EVEN HAVE A VIABLE MILITARY BY THE TIME WE GET THESE FASCISTS OUT OF WASHINGTON?

I wake up at 5:30 AM almost every day. By 6:30 I'm doing laps in my pool. And by 8 I'm walking in the hills around Griffith Park. Some time between 5:30 and 8 I like to write my first blog of the day. Often I get some kind of inspiration from my first human contact, my one pal who's online as early as I am (except for him it's because his newborn son is demanding attention), Johnny Wendell, the oft-mentioned super host of L.A.'s Air America affiliate. This morning Johnny started my day with a quote from one of our fearless leaders, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking a few weeks ago in D.C. at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. "The Army is probably as strong and capable as it ever has been in the history of this country. They are more experienced, more capable, better equipped than ever before."

It's all well and good for late night comedians to point out-- probably truthfully-- that Rumsfeld is suffering from dementia praecox or that he is clinically insane, but it is certainly not all well and good that the head of the Pentagon is either a raving lunatic or a craven, politically-motivated liar... or both. A retired Army officer, Andrew Krepinevich, a man with a suspiciously similar-sounding name to the clinician who first defined dementia praecox, was hired by the Pentagon to do an exhaustive report on the state of today's Army. His 136 page study's conclusions are seriously at odds with Rumsfeld's inane rantings and the Bush Regime's political posturing.

Krepinevich, who is the executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonprofit policy research institute, says that the Army, severely stressed by the bungled and mismanaged endeavors in Iraq and Afghanistan is a "thin green line" that could snap... soon. That the Army is seriously overextended is not news to anyone around The Pentagon (other than Rumsfeld and the ideological psychos in his padded little echo-chamber), but talking about it-- letting alone doing anything about it is strictly out-of-bounds.

Although the Pentagon hasn't published the report for the public, they grudgingly handed one over to the Associated Press. The report claims that the superb Army Bush inherited from Clinton-- like the budget surplus he inherited and squandered ruinously-- is "in a race against time" to adjust to the demands of war "or risk 'breaking' the force in the form of a catastrophic decline" in recruitment and re-enlistment." (2005 was the first time the Army missed its recruiting goal since 1999 and has been forced to offer much bigger enlistment bonuses and other incentives.)

The only professional soldiers who dare risk the ire and vengeance of the Bush Regime and speak out candidly are all retired. (A few months ago I went to a Wes Clark meeting and he explained, in a rather pained way, how the pressures-- some blatant and some more subtle, though just as insidious-- work among retired Army officers to keep them from speaking out against Bush's destructive and incompetent use of the armed forces.) I think we've all seen how viciously and savagely the Bush partisans-- mostly chickenhawks themselves-- have reacted when genuine decorated military veterans with combat experience have spoken out. The Bush crowd effectively slandered John Kerry and they have been trying to do the same to John Murtha, who most professional soldiers consider their best friend and most supportive ally in the Congress. Murtha argued that Rumsfeld's mismanagement has left us with an Army that is increasingly "broken, worn out" and "living hand-to-mouth," with our troops in Iraq "barely getting by." Murtha, a 37 year vet, is a long-time defense hawk, far more trusted by Republican and Democratic presidents on defense matters (until the current Impostor took over) than almost anyone else in Congress. In November he called for the beginning of a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq. He claims that it's going to cost as much as $50 billion dollars to upgrade equipment and repair the damages caused by the Bush Regime but that Rumsfeld has been reducing future military purchases to save money for domestic political expediency.

The A.P. report points out that "George Joulwan, a retired four-star Army general and former NATO commander, agrees the Army is stretched thin. 'Whether they're broken or not, I think I would say if we don't change the way we're doing business, they're in danger of being fractured and broken, and I would agree with that,' Joulwan told CNN last month."

The A.P. report also points out that "Krepinevich's analysis, while consistent with the conclusions of some outside the Bush administration, is in stark contrast with the public statements of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and senior Army officials. Army Secretary Francis Harvey, for example, opened a Pentagon news conference last week by denying the Army was in trouble. 'Today's Army is the most capable, best-trained, best-equipped and most experienced force our nation has fielded in well over a decade,' he said, adding that recruiting has picked up. Rumsfeld has argued that the experience of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has made the Army stronger, not weaker."

Krepinevich (gently) dismisses all Rumsfeld's bullshit as just so much propaganda and hot air. The A.P. reports "he said he concluded that even Army leaders are not sure how much longer they can keep up the unusually high pace of combat tours in Iraq before they trigger an institutional crisis. Some major Army divisions are serving their second yearlong tours in Iraq, and some smaller units have served three times.

Earlier this month, the overwhelming majority of soldiers who spoke out at a town hall meeting hosted by Murtha and Virginia Congressman Jim Moran, another hawk, lashed out against the incompetence and venality of Rumsfeld and Bush. According to infantry Sergeant John Brumes "Everything that the Bush Administration told us about that mission in Iraq is absolutely incorrect. Furthermore, I'd like to say ... I came home to no job, no health insurance. Until we take care of this war, we can't take care of the problems that matter like health care. I've witnessed both ends... Congressman Murtha, I implore you to keep doing what you're doing." John Powers a Captain in the First Armored Division who served 12 months in Iraq seemed just as frustrated. "The thing that hits me the most is the accountability... Where is the accountability for those men [who took us to war], as well as where is the accountability for Paul Bremmer, who misplaced millions of dollars and claims to keep accountability in the war zone?... I know that if we lost $500 we would be court marshaled. So where is the accountability for this leadership?" Another Iraq vet, George Reppenhagen, a sniper from the First Infantry Division, is also concerned about accountability. "How come there hasn't been an investigation on the fraudulent lead up to the war by this Administration?"