US army can surge troops to meet any crisis: army chief

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US army can deploy at least 15 additional combat brigades in a crisis, even though a large part of its force is in
Iraq, the service's civilian chief said.

"So we have the capability -- to answer it straightforward -- to surge to any crisis that the president may ask us to do," said Army Secretary Francis Harvey.

A brewing crisis with
Iran over its nuclear program has injected greater immediacy into a long-running debate over whether the 487,000-strong army is large enough to handle major contingencies other than Iraq.

It comes at a time when the army is scaling back plans to add more combat brigades to both the active-duty force and the Army National Guard as a result of a budget and strategy review that is now nearing completion.

I say you're full of horse manure, sir! Many units have been deployed to Iraq so many times that the men, women, and their equipment are worn out.

Semper Fi