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WORLD / Middle East

US Army chief seeks more forces, reserves

(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-15 09:17

WASHINGTON - As US President Bush weighs new strategies for Iraq, the
Army's top general warned Thursday that his force "will break" without
thousands more active duty troops and greater use of the reserves.

The US Army's chief Peter Schoomaker, seen here in February 2006, said a
bigger army and recurrent access to reserve forces are needed to keep
pace with deployments that will otherwise break the active force. [AFP]

Noting the strain put on the force by operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere in the global war on terrorism, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said
he wants to grow his half-million-member Army beyond the 30,000 troops
already added in recent years.

Though he didn't give an exact number, he said it would take significant
time and commitment by the nation, noting some 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers
could be added per year.

Officials also need greater authority to tap into the National Guard and
Reserve, long ago set up as a strategic reserve but now needed as an
integral part of the nation's deployed forces, Schoomaker told a
commission studying possible changes in those two forces.

"Over the last five years, the sustained strategic demand ... is placing
a strain on the Army's all-volunteer force," Schoomaker told the
commission in a Capitol Hill hearing.

"At this pace ... we will break the active component" unless reserves can
be called up more to help, Schoomaker said in prepared remarks.

Schoomaker's comments come as Bush continues his assessment of the Iraq
war. Bush held three days of urgent meetings with top generals and other
advisers. Over that time, Bush gathered advice from former and current
commanders, including those in Iraq, as well as chiefs of the military
services and other top Pentagon leaders.

White House spokesman Tony Snow declined to characterize Bush's response
to Schoomaker's suggestion, but said Bush "takes seriously any of the
requests from the service branch chiefs."

Speaking to reporters afterward, Schoomaker said Gen. George Casey, the
top commander in Iraq, is looking at several military options for the
war, including shifting many troops from combat missions to training
Iraqi units. However, Schoomaker said, the military is more interested in
getting the Iraqi security forces up to speed than anything.

Above all else, the military is looking at "how we generate Iraqi
output," he said.

The Army in recent days has been looking at how many additional troops
could be sent to Iraq, if the president decides a surge in forces would
be helpful. But, officials say, only about 10,000 to 15,000 troops could
be sent and an end to the war would have to be in sight because it would
drain the pool of available soldiers for combat.

Further, many experts warn, there is no guarantee a surge would work to
settle the violence.

"We would not surge without a purpose," Schoomaker told reporters. "And
that purpose should be measurable."

He even heard from outside advisers who suggested he remove Marine Gen.
Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to an
official familiar with the meeting who asked not to be named because the
discussions were private.

A number of administration officials have suggested privately that -
while Bush has considered the possibility of a short-term troop increase
- there is no consensus from the military on the wisdom of injecting a
large number of additional troops.

Another option under discussion is increasing the number of US troops who
are placed inside Iraqi army and police units as advisers, providing a
kind of on-the-job training that the senior military spokesman in
Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, told reporters is already paying
notable dividends.

The military has said that any adjustments in troop levels would be
fruitless without accompanying improvements on the political and economic
fronts, to reconcile the rival sectarian factions and to put young people
to work.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, meanwhile, called on the Bush
administration to set a timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
At a news conference in Washington, al-Hashemi, a Sunni leader who met
with Bush earlier this week, said the timetable should be "flexible" and
depend on development of a capable Iraqi security force.

"You've done your job," he said at the United States Institute of Peace,
a US-financed think tank.

Currently, however, he said, "There is across-the-board chaos in my
country," with roaming bands of murderers.

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