Skelton And House Armed Services Democrats Raise Questions Regarding Military Readiness Levels

Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), led by Rep. Ike Skelton, are raising tough questions regarding the readiness levels of our military.

According to the Democrats on HASC:

"Military “readiness” describes the condition of a military force before, during, and after deployment. In order to be ready, the force must be able to accomplish the mission it is trained to do – with the right type and number of personnel, the right sort of equipment for the mission, and the time and ability to train on that equipment. How ready we were yesterday foretells how well we fight today; how ready we are to fight today determines how well we fight tomorrow."

At a recent HASC hearing, Rep. Skelton asked a very tough and very direct question of Army chief of staff Peter J. Schoomaker:

Rep. Skelton: Are you comfortable with the readiness level for the non-deployed units that are in the continental United States?

Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker: No.

This is a direct failure by the Bush administration and of the Republicans in Congress who have refused to take their oversight responsibilities seriously.

For example, Senator Jim Talent, in his role on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) not only doesn't ask tough questions of the Bush administration but most of the time doesn't bother showing up at all. Talent has missed 65 of the 95 SASC hearings since he arrived in the Senate.

Meanwhile, our men and women in uniform are left without the equipment they need to defend our country. Bush says we are "fighting them over there" so we don't have to fight them here. What he doesn't make clear, is that by his actions, he has left the our military in such a condition that they'd be too ill-equipped to fight them here.

And before some right-winger tries to say that this is criticizing our troops, let me say, that's bunk. As the Democrats on HASC put it in their latest backgrounder:

We love our military and take seriously our job to do right
by them every day. Being honest and
forthright about the readiness problems facing our military is not a criticism
of the institution, but the purest support of the troops. Only by facing these problems can we get them
the money, the equipment, and the training they need to conduct the operations
this nation has assigned them.

And to make matters worse, the Bush administration and their enablers like Senator Jim Talent have consistently tried to hide the information that would give the Congress and the public a true picture of the state of military readiness. From the HASC Democrats document:

While our committee has held hearings about these matters,
the testimony has been incomplete. It is
compounded by the fact that this administration classifies so many aspects of
our readiness indicators that the Iraqis, Afghans, and foreign fighters in both
wars know more about the holes in our military readiness than the American
people do, the same people who foot the bill for our military and for whom our
military fights. While some readiness
indicators are appropriately classified, others should be open for public
discussion. Only an honest discussion of
this issue will allow us to identify the resources necessary to fix our
readiness problems.

Thank goodness Rep. Ike Skelton in on the job looking after problems like this. And in January, Chairman Skelton will have some help on the Senate side in a former auditor and former prosecutor who can and will ask the tough questions of the Bush administration on behalf of the men and women in uniform who serve our nation so well.