[link|http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-military25sep25,0,5555967.story?coll=la-home-headlines|LA Times]

The Army's top officer withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus its other global commitments without billions in additional funding.

The decision by Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, is believed to be unprecedented and signals a widespread belief within the Army that in the absence of significant troop withdrawals from Iraq, funding assumptions must be completely reworked, say current and former Pentagon officials.

According to a senior Army official involved in budget talks, Schoomaker is now seeking $138.8 billion in 2008, nearly $25 billion above budget limits originally set by Rumsfeld. The Army's budget this year is $98.2 billion, making Schoomaker's request a 41% increase over current levels.

This problem has been bubbling up for some time. The US military is not designed or equiped for continous field operations, and the people budgeting for the war have not accounted for all of the repair and resupply costs.

The chief of staff basically refused to sign off on the 2008 budget, on the grounds that it was billions short of what the military would actually need to keep operating at current levels.

And that is before factoring in the any increases in the size of the army, which more military planners are saying will be needed to keep operating at current levels.

Jay

Bringing 'Business Efficiency' to government was one of Bush's sellings points. Remember he was the 'Buisness President' and the 'CEO President'. They really hammered that before Enron fell, then their memories got hazy.

Cheney has been pushing towards more contracting in the military for decades. Rumsfeld is not fanatical about it, but it fits well with his own ideas of a new military organization built around high tech weapons, special forces and rapid response forces.

The invasion of Afganistan and Iraq proved that there where numerous problems with depending on contractors. Open bidding, contract oversight and negotiation of contracts break down when actually waging a war. One of the basic facts of a war is that everything needs to be done right now, it doesn't matter how it gets done, and cost is no object. Needless to say, companies are more then willing to exploit that for maximum profit at mininum effort on their part.

Jay