The Army Is Thinning, (Hopefully Like America's Patience with Incompetence)

TROOP NUMBERS THIN, PENTAGON STUDY SAYS (January, 2006)

I wish this were a report showcasing the results of the Bush administration's new "healthy diet" for the troops.

It's not.

It's all about how the frequent troop rotations to Iraqq and Afghanistan have stretched the limits of the armed forces.

The report, authored by retired Army officer Andrew Krepinevich, asserts that U.S. armed forces have been overused and underreplenished under this administration.

The key words are "overused" "underreplenished" and "retired."

You can't be active duty and talk this way or the Bush administration will put you out to pasture. To serve this president you have to be retired. President Bush has proven himself to be tough and unbudging -- not in his fight against Islamic terrorism -- but in his intolerance of truth-telling in his administration.

It's funny that you can't tell the truth to a born-again Christian president.

The author suggested that the Pentagon's decision to reduce troop levels was driven in part because they are overextended.

Tonight is the President's State of the Union address. One would think he'd use it as a rallying cry to recruit more troops to his cause. The only recruitment he's ever done was for Al Quaeda.

Don't hold your breath.

In fact, I'd recommend "don't hold your breath" with anything he says or has ever said, but that's mainly because, with the house and Supreme Court and White House firmly in the hands of right-wing Republicans, about the only thing common-sense Americans can do is sigh.

So take a deep breath. Again and again. That's the only way to tolerate children.