By George C. Wilson, CongressDaily
June 2, 2008
Skyrocketing health and weapons costs are eating up so much of the defense budget that the next president will find himself or herself commanding a military that cannot do much in the world outside of Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the message from the very top of the defense establishment.
Besides that, mid-level officers fresh from combat in Iraq tell me that this war has demonstrated that today's small, high-paid, all-volunteer force just does not have the staying power to wage long wars. They contend that the Pentagon's quick fix of sending the same troops and officers back to Iraq again and again for lack of enough trained warriors amounts to shooting the all-volunteer force in the foot.
President Richard Nixon suspended draft calls in 1973 in response to the anti-Vietnam War protests. The five-year war in Iraq is the first time the all-volunteer force and National Guard have had to fight that long a conflict.
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