Editorial: An Army of one?

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

In addition to dealing with an unexpectedly prolonged and costly war in Iraq, the Army is facing a shortage of leaders.

A Government Accountability Office report in January detailed that the Army has a looming shortage of new officers and a current shortage of midlevel officers, majors and lieutenant colonels. The lack of midlevel officers - the Army is short about 3,000 and will be so through at least 2013 - is especially troubling because those officers are the key commanders in battle.

This seems to be part of a bigger problem - keeping enough of the right people. While President Bush is calling for more soldiers to go to Iraq and to even Afghanistan, the question is: Are there even enough to keep up?

All the services have officer shortages in some areas, such as dentists or intelligence officers, but the Army is particularly concerned:

The report noted that the Army does not have a plan in place to address the problem. The fact that there is no plan and the Army doesn't have enough officers in the field, much less in any number of specialties, sadly is not a surprise.

This is just the latest bad news for the Army, which is reeling from setbacks in Iraq and the cover-up of horrific conditions facing war wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Each piece of bad news has been underpinned by poor oversight and planning by the Bush administration, which went into Iraq woefully unprepared and pressed the fight without an adequate amount of troops.

The Bush administration should take responsibility for the latest failing and do something it should have done long ago - create a realistic plan to deal with the problem.