RETREAT IN DEFEAT!

From Yahoo News

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon.

Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon's decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by a realization that the Army was overextended.

(BUNNY NOTE: NOT TO MENTION A REALIZATION THAT YOUR COMMANDER-IN CHIEF IS A DUNCE.)

As evidence, Krepinevich points to the Army's 2005 recruiting slump — missing its recruiting goal for the first time since 1999 — and its decision to offer much bigger enlistment bonuses and other incentives.

(BONUSES AND INCENTIVES LIKE ARMOR AND CLEAN WATER, UNLIKE THE DIARRHEA-WATER YOU PAID HALLIBURTON THROUGH THE NOSE FOR?)

"You really begin to wonder just how much stress and strain there is on the Army, how much longer it can continue," he said in an interview. He added that the Army is still a highly effective fighting force and is implementing a plan that will expand the number of combat brigades available for rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 136-page report represents a more sobering picture of the Army's condition than military officials offer in public. While not released publicly, a copy of the report was provided in response to an Associated Press inquiry.

("NOT RELAESED PUBLICLY? HIDING SOMETHING, PERHAPS?)

Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), the Pennsylvania Democrat and Vietnam veteran, created a political storm last fall when he called for an early exit from Iraq, arguing that the Army was "broken, worn out" and fueling the insurgency by its mere presence. Administration officials have hotly contested that view.

(HE WAS RIGHT THEN AND HE'S RIGHT NOW. AND NOW THE PENTAGON'S RESEARCH INDICATES THE SAME THING MURTHA'S BEEN SAYING? TOO BAD KING GEORGE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE TROOPS SO WE'LL KEEP ON FIGHTING.)

FULL ARTICLE: YAHOONEWS