• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton Opening Statement Hearing on Ground Forces Readiness

April 9, 2008

"The hearing will come to order.

"Today, the House Armed Services Committee meets in open session to discuss the state of ground force readiness. We are honored to have with us two exceptional military leaders-General Richard Cody, Vice Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army and General Robert Magnus, Assistant Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Gentlemen, welcome.

"We convene this hearing shortly after an important hearing this morning with General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. From my perspective, we cannot consider the way ahead in Iraq without careful examination of the state of readiness of our military and its ability to deter or to fight an unexpected conflict.

"We have had twelve military contingencies in the last 31 years, some of them major, and most of them unexpected. We must have a trained and properly-equipped force ready to handle whatever comes. But my strong concern is that our readiness shortfalls and the limitations on our ability to deploy trained and ready ground forces have reached a point where these services would have a very steep uphill climb with increased casualties to respond effectively to an emerging contingency. I have to agree with you, General Cody, in what you said in testimony last week-'I've never seen our lack of strategic depth be where it is today.' And this should concern all Americans.

"We have the finest military in the world. No doubt about it. And they have become masters in the counterinsurgency fight. But it takes time to retrain our forces so that they can deal with other types of conflict, and our forces don't have time. I understand the Army intends to reduce deployments from 15 months to 12. This is an improvement that I applaud, but it only resets us to where we were last winter. This pace will still wear our troops out and it does not leave enough time for the training needed to ensure they can respond to any conflict we might face.

"This is true of equipment as well. Both the Army and Marine Corps have been forced to move equipment from non-deployed units and prepositioned stocks to support combat requirements. Our equipment is focused on the units next to deploy to Iraq and the ones in theater, leaving gaps for training and for those who should be our strategic reserve. This also extends to the National Guard, which has an average of 61% of the equipment needed to be ready for disasters or attacks on the homeland. General Magnus, your testimony says that the net effect of these trends is, 'that our ability is very limited to rapidly provide ready forces to conduct other small or large scale operations.' And despite all that this Congress and the services have done to provide funding to reset our force, our readiness-as General Cody ably put it-'is being consumed as fast as we can build it.'

"Where do we go from here? Gentlemen, there is no ulterior motive here-we need to hear where things stand with our ground forces and what must be done to reduce the risk we are facing. This committee is committed to doing all we can to help you restore the readiness of our ground forces. We owe it to all those serving with incredible distinction, to their families, and to the American people whom they defend. We look forward to your testimony.

"I now call on my friend, the Ranking Member, Mr. Hunter, for any comments he would like to make."