[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 58 (Thursday, May 5, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3032-H3033]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             AMERICA'S ARMED FORCES: STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, General Richard Myers, 
the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned Congress that the 
stress on our Armed Forces of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan had 
raised the risk that it will take longer to prevail in conflicts 
elsewhere around the world. While General Myers stressed that American 
troops would still succeed, he acknowledged that the ongoing pace of 
operations has strained the military and would have a negative impact 
on operations, including the possibility of higher American casualties.
  General Myers' candid assessment is both welcome and, to me, self-
evident. A growing number of current and former military officers are 
expressing strong concern over the strain being placed on our Armed 
Forces, and for good reason: our Armed Forces are too small and the 
demands on them are too great.
  ``What keeps me awake at night,'' General Richard Cody, vice chief of 
staff of the U.S. Army, testified in a recent Senate hearing, ``is what 
will this all-volunteer force look like in 2007?'' General Cody's 
concerns are professional and personal. He is the father of two sons 
who are captains in the U.S. Army. Right now those sons are deployed on 
their second and third tours of combat since September 11.
  Throughout the country, men and women in the Guard and Reserve are 
being called up repeatedly to serve. Indeed, the line between those in 
the Guard and Reserve and those on active duty is being blurred beyond 
recognition. We can no longer ask a small group of men and women to 
bear such a disproportionate and growing share of the burden. We must 
expand the standing Army and Marine Corps to provide adequate resources 
for our long-term national security.
  When the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, American 
policymakers downsized the military in hopes of reaping a peace 
dividend. Our mistake at the end of the Cold War was to consider the 
vastly diminished threat of nuclear annihilation as signaling what one 
commentator called ``the end of history.'' Even as the Soviet Union 
broke apart, new threats, failed States, radical Islamic terrorism and 
ethnic and religious strife quickly advanced to challenge the United 
States. The need for the forward deployment of large numbers of 
American troops in Western Europe may have largely disappeared, but the 
end of the bipolar international system has led to much greater 
instability elsewhere.
  Before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the conflicts in Somalia, in 
Haiti and in Kosovo, already demonstrated some of the challenges that 
we confront in the post-Cold War era. Throughout the 1990s, even as the 
U.S. military maintained a significant presence in Europe, South Korea 
and in the Gulf region, U.S. forces engaged in these large-scale 
deployments. American troops are still operating in some of these areas 
and participating in other smaller peacekeeping operations. Despite the 
high tempo of activity, the strength of the active duty Army and Marine 
Corps went from 929,000 in 1990 to 655,000 in 2000.
  While we are fighting the war on terrorism and the Iraq war and 
trying to meet our other commitments, the strength of our active duty 
Army and Marine Corps has increased only slightly in the last 5 years. 
At the end of 2004, 671,000 Americans were serving on active duty in 
the Army and Marines and virtually all of the modest increase in troop 
strength has come as a result of stop-loss and other measures that have 
kept soldiers in the force beyond the period of their enlistments.
  To meet its needs, the military has mobilized hundreds of thousands 
of Reserve and National Guard personnel to serve in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, with many called to service multiple times and others 
activated from the Individual Ready Reserve. Because the gulf between 
the expectations of those joining the Guard and Reserve and the reality 
of today's service is so great, morale has suffered and recruitment is 
down.
  President Bush warned the American people that the war on terror 
would not be easy or quick. He asked the country to make a generational 
commitment to promote democracy around the world. But as this applies 
to adequate troop strength, the administration's rhetoric has not been 
matched with action.
  The defense authorization bill increased end strength of 20,000 for 
the Army and 3,000 for the Marine Corps. It also authorized an 
additional 10,000 Army and 6,000 Marines to be added in the next 5 
years. This expansion is a beginning. The administration and Congress, 
though, need to take steps to increase the size of our Armed Forces by 
a far more substantial amount. Recently, a bipartisan group of national 
security experts recommended increasing the active duty Army and Marine 
Corps by a combined 25,000 per year for several years. Former NATO 
Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark has called for an 
additional 90,000 troops to be added to the Army's ranks.
  Our Armed Forces are the best in the world, but even the best can be 
asked to do too much with too few. As we continue our missions in Iraq 
and Afghanistan and confront potential challenges in North Korea, Iran 
and elsewhere, we must acknowledge that our current force level does 
not meet our security needs.

                              {time}  1430

  Beefing up our recruiting efforts will not be easy, but we have 
little choice.

[[Page H3033]]

The magnitude of the threats we face presents too great a risk to the 
Nation's security given our current strength of active duty military.
  In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, we all hope and pray we never have to 
make need of these additional troops. But knowing we have a larger 
Armed Force if the urgency arises should help us all sleep a little 
better at night, including General Cody and his sons.

                          ____________________