Strength and Readiness

This is one of the side effects of seeing our troops as only cannon fodder and deck apes. As Gordon noted below here and here, potential recruits and officer candidates see what's going on and they are opting to remain in the private sector. Via Kos:

The Army Reserve is facing an extreme shortage of company officers, a situation aggravated by a surge in resignation requests.

The shortage — primarily of captains — has seriously reduced the capabilities of the Reserve, and continued losses will further reduce the readiness of "an already depleted military force," according to an Army briefing document submitted last month to Congress.

Army Reserve resignation requests have jumped from just 15 in 2001 to more than 370 during a 12-month period ending in September. To preserve its leadership ranks, the Reserve increasingly has rejected resignation requests, forcing some officers to stay on even after they have fulfilled their initial eight-year service requirement.

[. . .]

Story.

These turds in Washington don't get it. Like I always say, amateurs talk strategy and tactics, experts talk logistics. This proves the amateurs in the White House didn't, and still don't, get it. It's obvious Rummy has no idea of what he's looking at when he reads troop strength charts, not planning for losses due to casualties and attritition. Why do you think they're using 'Stop-loss' so liberally? It's obvious when looking at the whole 'up-armor' debacle.

It's also obvious the Rummy never considered the possibility of the protracted guerilla war that we're bogged down with now. When you're planning an operation, you hope for the best, but plan for the worst, just in case the worst-case scenario actually does come to pass. I'd be willing to bet the farm that 'worst-case' in Iraq was never even considered. Fucking amateurs, fucking assholes, fucking murderers.