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SecDef Says Army is Not Stretched Thin

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld strongly rejected warnings released this week in a Pentagon-contracted study that the Iraq war risks "breaking" the United States Army, and he said a recent decision to scale back U.S. troop levels in Iraq did not grow out of a need to relieve the strain on American ground forces. Since mid-2004, American troop levels in Iraq have ranged from about 135,000 to 160,000, requiring Army and Marine combat units to rotate into Iraq with shorter-than-usual stays at home in between.

"Soldiers and brigades are being deployed more frequently, and for longer periods, than what the Army believes is appropriate in order to attract and retain the number of soldiers necessary," wrote Andrew F. Krepinevich, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in a November 2005 study for the Pentagon.

"The force is not broken," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press briefing yesterday. "I just can`t imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that they`re close to breaking. That`s just not the case." Mr. Rumsfeld`s remarks came in response to questions about two studies released by a Democratic advisory group chaired by former defense secretary William J. Perry, and another by a military analyst contracted by the Pentagon. Both warned of the long-term consequences of strains on U.S. military manpower and equipment from repeated war-zone deployments.