Senator Joseph Lieberman Remarks at Troop Increase Press Conference

Senator Joseph Lieberman Remarks at Troop Increase Press Conference

Today, I am pleased to join with Senators Hillary Clinton, and Jack Reed, and Representatives Ellen Tauscher and Mark Udall to introduce the United States Army Relief Act of 2005.

We in turn are pleased to be joined by two retired Army Generals: General Daniel Christman, former Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and

General Robert Scales, former Commandant of the U.S. Army War College. General John Tilleli, former Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Forces Korea had hoped to join us but was detained at a previous meeting.

What brings us together today is a shared conclusion that the United States Army is facing a crisis. It is not a crisis of quality, bravery or commitment. The men and women in today's Army are as good as any who have ever worn the uniform.

The crisis is that there are not enough of them in today's army.

From the beginning of the all-volunteer Army in 1972 until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, the Army's end strength - the maximum number of troops allowed by law - was just under 800,000.

After the Cold War, that number dropped by almost 300,000 and stayed there.

Look at the numbers on this chart. They illustrate the current crisis. In every other time of war since World War II, the President and Congress have increased the size of the Army.

Today - three and a half years after 9/11/01 and the beginning of the Global War on Terror--with troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and with soldiers deployed in 118 other countries - we are still at only 502,400 authorized Army end strength, roughly the same size as the Army has been since the end of the Cold War.

We believe that our troops and our nation are paying a price for this inadequate Army end strength and may pay even more dearly in the uncertain years ahead unless the Army grows substantially.

We are here to do something about that, not to make partisan statements, but to begin a patriotic movement that will reach out to colleagues of both parties in

Congress, to the officials of the Bush Administration, and to all Americans to build support for an increase in the size of our army by an additional 80,000 soldiers over the next four years to an end strength of 582, 400. That is what the "United States Army Relief Act of 2005" will do. We take this action because:

We believe that the current pace of troop deployments to Iraq requires too much of the men and women of our Army. Too many of them have been sent there too often and stayed too long and that has had an undesirable affect on their families, their communities, and the capacity of the Army to meet recruitment goals.

We believe that greater Army end strength will give our war fighting commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq the capability they need to surge the number of troops on the ground there if facts on the ground require that.

We are concerned that if other crises occur elsewhere in the world in the years ahead we won't have the appropriately sized Army trained and ready to go there to deal with these other crises.

And we are concerned that too much of the experienced institutional Army, that part that raises, trains, and supports the combat forces, is being reduced to make up for this combat troop shortage, depriving today's soldiers of the highest level of training and education and support, and threatening to deprive tomorrow's soldiers -including particularly tomorrow's officers--of the knowledge and experience they will need to fight the wars of the future.

In the days, weeks, and months ahead we will reach out to our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to help build an Army with the force to match its motto: "This We'll Defend."

We begin with this bill, which we are introducing today. Later this month, to broaden the discussion, we intend to offer it as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill.

We will also ask for the opportunity to make our case for 100,000 more soldiers to the officials in the Pentagon who are working on the important Quadrennial Defense Review, which will be issued next year.

Finally, I want to thank the Third Way, a centrist Democratic organization, for the important policy work they have done to bring us to the introduction of this legislation and the beginning of this movement.

http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=240547