Bush 'Inclined' to Increase Military Troops

Dec. 19, 2006 — -- President Bush said he agreed with proposals to increase the overall size of the Army and Marine Corps -- a move that could relieve the stress on those forces caused by the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The increases will not provide immediate relief in those conflicts, as they will take years to take effect and would cost a lot. Plus, these increases are separate from the ongoing discussions to send additional troops to Iraq.

In an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post, Bush said, "I'm inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops -- the Army, the Marines."

The president provided few specifics on any increases but said he has asked new Defense Secretary Robert Gates to provide some recommendations on increasing the size of both forces.

Bush added that the proposed increases were not a response to events in Iraq but a reflection that the global war on terror "is going to last for a while, and that we're going to need a military that's capable of being able to sustain our efforts."

Just last week, the Army's top general, Peter Schoomaker, told a congressional commission that the Army was at a breaking point. "As it currently stands, the Army is incapable of generating and sustaining the required forces to wage the global war on terror."

Schoomaker told the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves that one option to relieve the stress would be to increase the overall size of the Army. Another proposal would provide more frequent access to its reserve forces to ease the strain on the active duty Army. "At this pace, without recurrent access to the reserve components through remobilization, we will break the active component."

Former Secretary of State and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell went further on CBS's "Face the Nation," saying, "the active Army is about broken."

Bush told The Washington Post, "I haven't heard the word 'broken,' but I've heard the word 'stressed.' … We need to reset our military. There's no question the military has been used a lot."

For quite some time, both Army and Marine officials have privately expressed concerns that increasing their end strengths could provide a relief for the strain on their active duty troops rotating in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authorized for 482,000 soldiers, the Army has been given a temporary green light to boost its ranks by 30,000 soldiers to 512,000, a goal that will be reached by the end of next year.

The Army wants to make this increase permanent, because that would make resourcing easier, since operations are currently funded by the emergency funding bills that pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are no specifics about how much further the Army might want to grow beyond 512,000. Schoomaker refused to provide a range to reporters last week.

But there has been some discussion of the Army boosting its ranks by an additional 30,000 troops. Schoomaker said that recruiters believe they could add an additional 7,000 new recruits a year to their current annual goal of 80,000 recruits.

Gen. James Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, suggested to reporters last month that the strains being placed on his force of 180,000 Marines might be relieved by boosting the overall size of the Corps. It would take the Marine Corps considerably longer to boost the size of its force, as recruiting officials have told Conway that with its current staffing, the Corps can only add an additional 2,000 Marines a year on top of its current recruiting goals.

There are no specifics on what proposals have been forwarded to Gates, but privately, some Marine officials have said one possibility would be to increase the size of the Corps to 202,000. Doing so would make rotations in Iraq easier and provide Marines with a longer break in between combat rotations than is currently possible.

Boosting the size of either force will cost a lot. Army officials estimate it costs $1.2 billion to recruit, train and equip an additional 10,000 troops a year. And that cost doesn't include future payroll costs, which could also be significant.

Despite Bush's agreement in principle, it's still up to Congress to authorize any increases to the size of both forces. It would appear that there is support for the proposal from a powerful member of Congress.

At a news conference today, incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., said he was "convinced the Army and the Marines are near the breaking point." He added, "Look, you have the commandant of the Marine Corps who wants more Marines. You have the Army chief of staff testifying before the National Guard and Reserve Commission just last week, saying they're stretched and strained and they need more people. We're going to have to pay attention to this."

Skelton said he has long supported proposals to increase the size of both forces.