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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: h0db who wrote (128557)	4/6/2004 11:30:41 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Respond to of 281500

<We have almost no combat reserves left> Our defensive positions, all over the planet, are now seriously threatened, by our offensive operations in Iraq. If any foreign nation chooses to challenge us, anywhere, we simply don't have the reserve forces to do much of anything about it. We just have to hope and pray, that nobody uses this opportunity to push us, because we've got nothing to push back with.

To: h0db who wrote (128557)	4/6/2004 11:36:46 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi h0db; I agree with you that we are stretched VERY thin in Iraq, but technically you're wrong about this: "... the number of activated guard and reserves is at an all time high ..." A more accurate statement would be that we are at an all time high in terms of the number of guards and reserves that are either activated, or have recently been taken off of activation and so are not usually subject to being immediately reactivated. Also, I hate to further nitpick, but you failed to mention that the military is sending people with specialties other than ground combat into Iraq as infantry combat soldiers. Right now, with the sudden increase in action, they're basically sending cooks and typists out to fight. That is not a good thing for a bunch of reasons. Basically, it's a bit of a return to the conscript army that performed so poorly in Vietnam. When it comes to winning hearts and minds, you need special forces (a lot of whom are now apparently leaving the service and joining up with private security firms). -- Carl P.S. Total activated guard and reserves as of March 31, 2004 was 151,745. The figure from January 21, for example, was 165,086. defenselink.mil defenselink.mil