Rumsfeld orders Army size increased by 30,000 troops

By Bradley Graham
The Washington Post

	MARIO TAMA / GETTY IMAGES Soldiers from the Army's First Armored Division survey the scene where a car bomb exploded yesterday in front of a hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least three people. Local hospitals reported more than a dozen injuries.
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The move, disclosed yesterday in congressional testimony by Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, surprised members of the House Armed Services Committee, many of whom have been pressing to increase the force of 482,000.

Rumsfeld has resisted a permanent increase for months, arguing that a number of efficiency measures and restructuring moves could alleviate some of the stress on the 1.2-million-member U.S. forces. But his approval of a temporary increase — which does not require congressional action and which Schoomaker said probably would be needed for four years — appeared to acknowledge that some relief is needed.

Schoomaker said with the increase the Army could expand the number of brigades and create more agile, deployable forces. Money to add the troops would come from the $87 billion emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan that passed in November, he said.

An aide to Schoomaker said after the hearing that the Pentagon probably could increase troops by offering incentives to keep soldiers from leaving once their contracts expire and through "stop-loss" orders barring their exit.

Schoomaker also disclosed that he has ordered his staff to plan how the Army, now replacing its forces in Iraq with fresh units, would rotate similarly sized force into Iraq in 2005 — and again in 2006. But other Pentagon officials said any decisions on the size of future rotations are months away.

Larry DiRita, the Pentagon's top spokesman, said Rumsfeld approved the troop increase within the past few days. DiRita said Rumsfeld acted under emergency authority approved by Congress and invoked by President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks, allowing the lifting of personnel caps on the military services. To discuss the troop-level issue further, Rumsfeld has invited some House members to a breakfast meeting today.

Army strength Congressionally approved size: 482,000 Current size: 493,000, because of "stop-loss" orders Size Rumsfeld has ordered: 512,000 Current deployments Iraq: 130,000 Afghanistan: 9,000 Bosnia: 3,000 South Korea: 37,000 Source: Pentagon

The U.S. military, and especially the Army, has come under great stress over the past 2½ years. The Army this month began the largest troop rotation since World War II, moving 250,000 troops in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The rotation will involve eight of the Army's 10 active-duty divisions. In addition, nearly 165,000 Army National Guard and Reserve members are serving tours far longer than what they had expected as part-time soldiers.

Schoomaker and Gen. Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, argued at yesterday's hearing against proposals that would enlarge their forces permanently. They said it is not clear that current demands represent anything more than a temporary spike.

Schoomaker, in particular, insisted the Army needed to restructure before determining whether to take the expensive step of requesting more troops. Locking an increase in now, he warned, would result in the kind of bloated, ill-prepared force that plagued the Army in the 1970s.

But both Schoomaker and Hagee hedged their remarks, saying they would change their minds if the current tempo proved to be a plateau instead of a temporary spike.

Republicans and Democrats on the committee refused to give up on the idea of legislating a more permanent increase in troop strength. Some expressed annoyance at what they saw as an attempt by Rumsfeld to skirt Congress.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who has introduced legislation to boost the size of the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps by 8 percent temporarily over five years, said the Pentagon seemed to be resisting an obvious need for additional manpower to spare other Bush administration priorities, such as developing a national missile-defense system.

"We cannot put the strain on our military and on our American people just because we insist ideologically to keep the budget the way it is," Tauscher said.

Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., predicted, "This'll be the biggest issue in this year's defense authorization."

But Schoomaker urged Congress not to increase the size of the Army permanently, arguing that such a move would undercut the Army's efforts to restructure its forces and modernize with new weapons and other technology. To add only 10,000 soldiers to the Army would cost $1.2 billion, he said.

"I am adamant that is not the way to go," he said.

In Senate testimony in November, Schoomaker reported that the Army had crept beyond its congressionally authorized limit by 20,000 as a result of "stop-loss" orders. He said yesterday that number had dropped to about 11,000 soldiers. After the hearing, he said the Army would move "as quickly as we can" to add nearly 20,000 more troops.

Schoomaker's comment against making the troop increase permanent was provided by Knight Ridder Newspapers.

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