Anyone who trades the market knows that timing is everything. This is certainly true as well in politics. For Bush to get his reelection, he needs people to believe that the economy is improving. For Cheney to make his revival of the MIC (Military Industrial Complex) permanent, he needs a return of the draft (to be accomplished during Bush's second term). The best hope for those that oppose this Admin is that their incompetence will cause them to muff the jobs. For the economy, after a herculean job of pumping, the GDP has rebounded. But is it sustainable until next fall? Or will the highly skewed tax cuts provide insufficient stimulus, and the economy again sputter before the election?
Just as incompetence on the fiscal front may threaten the economic recovery, incompetence on the military front (Iraq) may threaten the reelection - by forcing a discussion of the draft before the fall.
Four Army divisions -- 40 percent of the active-duty force -- will not be fully combat-ready for up to six months next year, leaving the nation with relatively few ready troops in the event of a major conflict in North Korea or elsewhere, a senior Army official said yesterday.
The four divisions -- the 82nd Airborne, the 101st Airborne, the 1st Armored and the 4th Infantry -- are to return from Iraq next spring, to be replaced by three others, with a fourth rotating into Afghanistan. That would leave only two active-duty divisions available to fight in other parts of the world.
Briefing reporters at the Pentagon, the official said the four returning divisions will be rated either C-3 or C-4, the Army's two lowest readiness categories, for 120 to 180 days after they return as vehicles and helicopters are overhauled and troops are rested and retrained.
C-3 means a division is capable of performing only some of its combat missions, and C-4 means a division needs additional manpower, training or equipment to fight a major regional war.
from
washingtonpost.com
Sometimes the "good guys" win, because the hubris of the "bad guys" leads to incompetence.
Fingers crossed, and
JMO
lurqer |
