Thinking as a Hobby

I'll plead a fair amount of ignorance when it comes to the intricacies of military affairs, but can someone explain something to me?

According to this FAS document:

Throughout the Cold War, end strength of the U.S. active duty force never dropped below 2.0 million personnel and peaked at over 3.5 million during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.1 From 1989 to 1999, end strength dropped steadily from 2.1 million to 1.4 million, where it has remained.

I've seen estimates of 700,000 Army reserve forces as well. So we've got at least 2 million troops either active duty or available in reserve.

And we currently have 140,000 in Iraq. That's less than 8% of our available forces. So why is there constant talk of our military being "overstretched" or "stretched thin"?

We took Baghdad in a few weeks with over 200,000 troops, then scaled that back. And we're overstretched? What if we had to fight a prolonged hot war, rather than an insurgency, for an extended period of time? What if we had to fight a multi-theatre war like WWII?

We're overstretched now?




	Thinking as a Hobby Home Get Email Updates LINKS JournalScan Email Me Admin Password Remember Me 3477747 Curiosities served Share on Facebook				2004-08-05 9:46 AM Overstretched? Previous Entry :: Next Entry Read/Post Comments (13) I'll plead a fair amount of ignorance when it comes to the intricacies of military affairs, but can someone explain something to me? According to this FAS document: Throughout the Cold War, end strength of the U.S. active duty force never dropped below 2.0 million personnel and peaked at over 3.5 million during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.1 From 1989 to 1999, end strength dropped steadily from 2.1 million to 1.4 million, where it has remained. I've seen estimates of 700,000 Army reserve forces as well. So we've got at least 2 million troops either active duty or available in reserve. And we currently have 140,000 in Iraq. That's less than 8% of our available forces. So why is there constant talk of our military being "overstretched" or "stretched thin"? We took Baghdad in a few weeks with over 200,000 troops, then scaled that back. And we're overstretched? What if we had to fight a prolonged hot war, rather than an insurgency, for an extended period of time? What if we had to fight a multi-theatre war like WWII? We're overstretched now? Read/Post Comments (13) Previous Entry :: Next Entry Back to Top