Group calls for increase in Army and Marine troop levels

Members of the conservative Project for the New American Century are calling on House and Senate leaders to increase the Army and Marine Corps active duty troop levels over the next several years in support of an extended engagement in the Middle East.

In a Friday letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the group said the military is too small to meet its current and future responsibilities, and "the administration has unfortunately resisted increasing our ground forces," according to the letter.

"While estimates vary about just how large an increase is required ... it is our judgment that we should aim for an increase in the active duty Army and Marine Corps, together, of at least 25,000 troops each year over the next several years," the letter states.

Citing a recent report from Lt. Gen. James Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve, the letter notes that "overuse" in Iraq and Afghanistan could be breaking the reserve component of the force.

Yet after almost two years in Iraq and nearly three in Afghanistan, it is becoming evident that the U.S. engagement in the Middle East is a generational commitment, the letter states. It is signed by 34 military and national security experts, including two retired Army generals.

Some lawmakers agree, including Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who sees a need for additional troops despite legislation in last year's fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill that added 30,000 soldiers and almost 10,000 Marines to boost troop levels. Reed, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said last week during a telephone press conference he is considering new legislation to add more troops.

But other lawmakers are reluctant to tamper with the military's manpower as the Pentagon continues its ongoing effort to transform in the face of terrorism.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., last week told CongressDaily he would scrutinize any proposal to add more troops. "I think we need to have oversight hearings" to ascertain the current and potentially continued strain on the National Guard and reserve components, Hunter said.

But he added that Congress must ensure the Pentagon strikes a balance between paying for more troops while funding the modern technologies and equipment they need on the battlefield. "We don't want end-strength doing damage to modernization," Hunter said.

With the Bush administration under mounting pressure to reduce the deficit, spending for more troops and equipment could be increasingly difficult to justify despite the military's protracted engagement in Iraq.

But the authors of the letter say it is possible to accomplish both goals while remaining fiscally responsible. "We understand the dangers of continued federal deficits, and the fiscal difficulty of increasing the number of troops," the letter states. "This nation can afford a robust defense posture along with a strong fiscal posture. And we can afford both the necessary number of ground troops and what is needed for transformation of the military," it states.