So, how do we come up with $100 billion dollars for needed repairs? We are faced with three choices. One, we can scale down the size of our military in order to cover the needed repairs. Two, we can keep the military at its current size, and have worn out equipment. Or three, we borrow more money, and go further into debt to cover the costs. None of these are good options, but they are the choices we have been given.

"It's going to come from personnel cuts," Murtha said. "That's where it's going to come from. They know it."
Pentagon leaders realize they face a choice between a larger military and improved equipment, said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staf...

So, how do we come up with $100 billion dollars for needed repairs? We are faced with three choices. One, we can scale down the size of our military in order to cover the needed repairs. Two, we can keep the military at its current size, and have worn out equipment. Or three, we borrow more money, and go further into debt to cover the costs. None of these are good options, but they are the choices we have been given.

"It's going to come from personnel cuts," Murtha said. "That's where it's going to come from. They know it."
Pentagon leaders realize they face a choice between a larger military and improved equipment, said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We must reset, reconstitute and revitalize our ground forces," Mullen told a Senate panel in May. However, the costs "will force us to a smaller military or force us away from any kind of modernization or programs that we need for the future."

For the Army's top brass, this is nothing new. General Casey was warning about this last Fall.

WASHINGTON - The Army's top officer, General George Casey, told Congress yesterday that his branch of the military has been stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it can not adequately respond to another conflict - one of the strongest warnings yet from a military leader that repeated deployments to war zones in the Middle East have hamstrung the military's ability to deter future aggression.

To make matters worse, the actual cost of needed repairs remains an unknown because it is contingent upon our current strategy. The Army wants $17 billion a year, for three years after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end. So, if they need it for three years after the wars end, when is that? At what point do we stop and realize that our continued presence in Iraq is breaking the very force that we depend upon to keep us safe? In other words, the longer we keep all of our resources tied up in Iraq, the more vulnerable we become.