Mike Levin: “Over 4 years of war have stressed our Armed Forces to the breaking point. Our Army and Marine Corps are stretched…”

“Over 4 years of war have stressed our Armed Forces to the breaking point. Our Army and Marine Corps are stretched dangerously thin. They are performing magnificently, as they always do. Chronic personnel and equipment shortages plague our nondeployed forces resulting in dangerously low readiness. As a nation, we simply do not have the ground forces necessary, nor are the few uncommitted forces trained and ready, to protect our interests against other threats around the world. As Army Chief of Staff GEN George Casey put it: The demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. Nearly 1.6 million servicemembers have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Of the Army's 43 active brigades available for rotation, 10 brigades have been deployed three or more times. All others have been deployed once or twice, with the exception of one new brigade just forming. Of course, the single brigade stationed in Korea does not deploy as part of the Iraq or Afghanistan rotation. All of our National Guard combat brigades have at least one rotation to Iraq, Afghanistan, or Kosovo. Two National Guard combat brigades have two rotations. Guard brigades from Indiana, Arkansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and New York have been notified that they should be prepared to deploy at the end of this year.”