It makes sense to keep the best equipment in Iraq to actually win the war--that takes priority. And it makes sense to also avoid the cost of shipping one tank home while shipping another tank in.
I concluded:
I do think we are cutting it too close with equipment but this is a problem and not a crisis. Units coming home from Iraq wouldn't be ready for war even with 100% of their equipment sitting in the bases.
Address the issue. Don't panic over it.
I'm starting to worry a little more that we aren't addressing this adequately:
Potential disasters are developing in American National Guard units. Too many units are sending their vehicles and other equipment to Iraq, and not getting it back when the troops return. This is serious because, in effect, the National Guard is the local militia for the individual states. When the federal government is not using National Guard troops (which is most of the time), the troops answer to their state governor. The only time the governors call on the National Guard is when there is some kind of major emergency, usually a natural disaster. That's when the troops need their trucks, hummers, radios and what not.
I know there are compacts to move troops around the country, so the fewer troops properly equipped can be identified and used for internal missions. And I know there are plans to re-equip the Guard with new stuff to allow them to be an operational reserve and not mostly a strategic reserve.
But we really do need to get a move on. We are taking a risk--a risk required by being at war and being on a procurement holiday during the 1990s--but we've been at war for five years now and it won't do to blame current shortages on 1990s peactime decisions. We simply cannot simply move dwindling pieces around the board to cover our weak areas.
And the situation could get worse if this goes on. Soldiers are volunteers, and reservists who can't actually train on the equipment that makes them soldiers will get out rather than endure yet another weekend of paper training in place of getting out in the field and practicing.
So we risk mobilizing troops who are rusty and having fewer actual experienced soldiers. This on top of the troops working with minimal equipment levels or older equipment salvaged from somewhere to put in their hands. For want of a nail ...
I'm not at panic level, but I'm moving in the direction of concern. At some point, taking a justified calculated risk becomes simply risky behavior. That's how potential disasters become actual disasters.
