Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Please, no more excuses

Friday, Jan. 16, 2004 | 8:42 a.m.

THE MIXED STORIES about the state of our military forces, coming from our sources of information, must be confusing to most Americans. Some are disturbing to many of us and should disturb the consciences of every American.

Two day ago an Associated Press article told readers about 21 suicides among our troops during 2003. This rate is about 13.5 per 100,000 for troops in Iraq compared to the peacetime figures for the Army of 10.5 to 11 suicides per 100,000 troops. They have nine combat stress teams working with the troops in that country and between 300 and 400 troops have been medically evacuated for mental health problems.

What is much more disturbing are the following two paragraphs from the same story: "The military also is working to solve the issue of soldiers awaiting medical care. Since November, about 1,900 of the 4,400 troops waiting for medical care have been treated, Winkenwerder said.

"But the military expects more problems when tens of thousands of troops are rotated in and out of Iraq this spring, Winkenwerder said. Many of those troops may have to wait at various bases for medical treatment such as physical therapy for injuries, he said."

The shooting war has been going on for almost 10 months and we have soldiers stacked up at military bases still waiting for medical care. And now even greater problems for those needing medical care will be faced because of the mass rotation of troops from Iraq. This is not what the soldiers of the world's wealthiest nation should be enduring.

This leads into the need for rotation of almost 118,000 of our soldiers in Iraq during the coming four-month period of time. This doesn't mean that all of them will be released after their enlistment is up. About 7,000 will have their tours of duty extended.

So are we short of troops? Not according to the following USA Today story that ran this week: "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he has no intention of increasing the size of the Army to handle challenges in Iraq and elsewhere despite calls from Congress to add at least 40,000 troops. He acknowledged that the U.S. combat force is stretched thin but said the Pentagon is taking immediate actions to relieve what he called a temporary stress on the military..."

An earlier report in USA Today told readers: "For years, Congress has generally deferred to the Pentagon on troop strength. But there appears to be growing concern over the issue, even among Republicans. Among the signs of a shift:

I have come to believe that our troops are probably spread too thin and we can only hope a serious crisis in Korea or some other part of the world doesn't arise. A Military Times poll showed that 77 percent of the Army troops also believe we are short of soldiers. In the meantime we must plan for the future better than we did for the Iraq invasion. Today we are still sitting on a powder keg in Afghanistan.

The medical care shortages being faced by returning soldiers is a situation that can't be excused or ignored. Have you asked your representatives in Congress what is being done about this lack of treatment?

This also requires us to ask if every soldier in Iraq is now fully equipped with the latest type of body armor. Two months ago nearly 25 percent of the 130,000 troops in Iraq hadn't been issued a new type of ceramic body armor strong enough to stop the bullets fired from assault rifles.

At least 100,000 new troops are on their way to Iraq and they deserve the best equipment possible to complete their tour of duty successfully. Anything less is a scandal and can't be tolerated by those of us here at home.

Finally, if we can spend $20 billion to reconstruct Iraq we certainly can quickly provide the best medical care for those returning home injured.