The Death of the U.S. Army

When I was a Cavalry Troop commander, if I had to report that 80% of my aircraft were unready for deployment and combat, I would have been relieved of duty. The same would have been true of any commander up the chain of command. Had any unit been not ready to deploy while a part of the "Ready Brigade Task Force" - a combined-arms unit on rotational stand-by able to be "wheels up" on an Air Force transport to go anywhere in the world in 18 hours or less - every commander in the chain, right up to the Division Commander would have been relieved.

And yet, because of his disastrous Iraq invasion, Bush has caused the entire Army to be incapable of fulfilling its mission. Not only its current primary mission in the Middle East, but also its secondary (and without doubt, its tertiary) mission of being capable of responding to a second crisis anywhere else in the world.

This NYT story about the Ready Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division not being capable of even getting to its Air Force transports is the most disturbing evidence of the tragic - and dangerous - mess created by BushCo.'s half-assed attempt at military adventurism. If this story doesn't scare you, you might be forgiven for not knowing just how vital this Ready Brigade is. That everyone in the Department of Defense, right up to the Commander-in-Chief, isn't scrambling to fix this, but apparently are just accepting it as the price of "staying the course" or the "surge" should certainly frighten anyone with even a modicum of knowledge about the military and its missions.

Bush has not only robbed our children and grandchildren of a safe, secure future in the world, he hasn't only robbed our treasury blind with this misadventure and he hasn't only been responsible for the death of thousands of America's finest. He has actually, purposefully, made us all less safe, less secure now.

George W. Bush, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States has caused, through negligence, those armed forces to be not ready to fight. He has failed in one of his primary Constitutional duties to all of us.

He MUST be relieved of command.

Now.