Both the Army and the Marines…fell short of their goals for hiring roadside bomb defusers by about 20 percent in each of the last two years. The Army Reserve, meanwhile, failed to fill about a third of its more than 1,500 intelligence analysts jobs. And in the National Guard, there have been consistent shortages filling positions involving tanks, field artillery and intelligence.
The report found that, in all, the military, which is engaged in the most demanding wartime recruitment effort since the 1970’s, had failed to fully staff 41 percent of its array of combat and noncombat specialties.
Officials with the accountability office, the independent investigative arm of Congress, found that some of the critical shortfalls had been masked by the overfilling of other positions in an effort to reach overall recruiting goals. As a result, the G.A.O. report questioned whether Congress had been given an accurate picture by the Pentagon of the military’s ability to maintain the force it needs for Iraq and Afghanistan.
In other words, the Pentagon is lying to the American public, to Congress. The emphasis is added for folks who only hear what appears on Fox Snooze.
It’s all smoke and mirrors. That probably explains why the US Army has been using white phospherous to attack, ahem, illuminate Iraqi insurgants.
If a business was run the way the current government is running things…
Gee I wonder why… all you ever see reported on the news is how many people were killed today. Now, tell me again why Americans have become disillusioned with our efforts in Iraq.
critical shortfalls had been masked by the overfilling of other positions in an effort to reach overall recruiting goals. As a result, the G.A.O. report questioned whether Congress had been given an accurate picture
Your biases are certainly showing, you seem to have weak reading comprehension skills. Perhaps you should read those lines again, slowly, and pretend you’re not rendered stupid by your prejudices.
The text does not say that anyone lied to Congress or the American people, does it? “Shortfalls have been masked” — well my car might be masked from my view in the parking lot by an SUV, but no one is lying to me about anything. Wow, maybe there’s a reason the NYT uses the usually undesirable passive voice here. Maybe they’re not asserting what you seem to wish they were asserting.
It seems “the military” achieved what goals it could in a rational way, and then answered the questions Congress asked. They said they could get the job done, and they are getting the job done, as Afganistan and Iraq proceed with a difficult march toward democratic institutions that would have been quite unfathomable 5 years ago.
If congressmen are so clueless as to not understand staffing or to ask good questions, and that causes them not to have an accurate understanding of all the details, maybe they should pause from bribe-taking and philandering long enough to educate themselves.
When I was a navy personnel officer in the early 1990s, my squadron was certainly never “fully staffed” any more than say, a typical fast-growing tech company is “fully staffed” with engineers when it has 20 job openings posted on Monster.com. There is a notional “fully staffed” level, but the warm bodies just might not be available during peace or war. So you make do and figure a way to get the job done, which is what the military is quite honestly explaining to anyone who is willing to listen.
But of course, you didn’t read the article, you just looked at the cartoon, didn’t you? Silly me.