Note: December 15th, 2005 was the 1000th day of war/armed occupation in Iraq.

So there you have it. The American and allied forces aren't BIG enough to handle the problem.

And if the US goes to war against Iran (a country which is FOUR TIMES BIGGER THAN IRAQ!) they will need a lot more troops. A lot more. Iran has a standing army of 36.5 million troops, and trains both their men AND their women. Iran has mandatory military service for ANYONE over the age of 18.

It is widely rumoured that many of the so-called "Iraqi insurgents" are actually from neighbouring Iran.

This is apparently the kind of fight a good Christian like Stephen Harper wants Canada to get involved in... a religious war of huge magnitude.

Myself, I don't believe in god. I cannot believe the sheer stupidity and "dumb logic" of Christians who preach its wrong to commit murder, but its apparently okay to kill people who aren't Christian. I can't believe in murder or war. It only perpetuates itself.

What happens ten or twenty years from now when the children of the people America kills comes back for vengeance? It will be 9/11 all over again.

And why will our Canadian troops be considered "mercenaries"...?

Because Bush will get rid of the softwood lumber problem and other trade disputes in order to gain Canadian troop involvement. If Canada is getting "paid" for its military services, then what does that make Canadian troops?

Mercenaries.

Army's `thin green line' set to break: Study
Stints in Iraq, Afghanistan taking toll
U.S. won't be able to break insurgency
January 25th/2006, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon.

Andrew Krepinevich, a retired army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded the army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He suggested the Pentagon decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by realization that the army was overextended.

As evidence, Krepinevich points to the army's 2005 recruiting slump ? missing its recruiting goal for the first time since 1999 ? and its decision to offer much bigger enlistment bonuses and other incentives.

"You really begin to wonder just how much stress and strain there is on the army, how much longer it can continue," he said in an interview. He added the army is still highly effective and is implementing a plan to expand the number of combat brigades available for rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 136-page report presents a more sobering picture of the army's condition than military officials offer in public. While not released publicly, a copy was provided in response to an Associated Press inquiry.

Illustrating his level of concern about strain on the army, Krepinevich titled one chapter in his report, "The Thin Green Line,'' echoing James Jones' 1962 novel on the U.S. war in the Pacific, The Thin Red Line.

Krepinevich wrote that the army's "in a race against time" to adjust to war demands "or risk `breaking' the force in the form of a catastrophic decline" in recruitment and re-enlistment.

Col. Lewis Boone, spokesperson for Army Forces Command, which is responsible for providing troops to war commanders, said it would be "a very extreme characterization" to call the army broken. He said his organization has been able to fulfill every request for troops from field commanders.

Krepinevich's assessment is the latest in the debate over whether the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have worn out the army, how the strains can be eased and if the U.S. military is too burdened to defeat other threats.

George Joulwan, a retired four-star army general and former NATO commander, agrees the army is stretched thin.

"Whether they're broken or not, I think I would say if we don't change the way we're doing business, they're in danger of being fractured and broken, and I would agree with that," Joulwan told CNN last month.

Krepinevich did not conclude U.S. forces should quit Iraq now, but said it might be possible to reduce troop levels below 100,000 by year end. About 136,000 are there now, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

For an army of about 500,000 soldiers ? not counting thousands of National Guard and reserve soldiers now on active duty ? the commitment of 100,000 or so to Iraq might not seem an excessive burden. But the war has lasted longer than expected, so the army regularly must rotate fresh units in while maintaining normal training and reorganization.

Krepinevich's analysis contrasts starkly with public statements by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and senior army officials.

Army Secretary Francis Harvey last week by denied the army was in trouble. ``Today's army is the most capable, best-trained, best-equipped and most experienced force our nation has fielded in well over a decade," he said, adding that recruiting has picked up.

Rumsfeld has argued experience fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan makes the army stronger, not weaker.

Krepinevich said he concluded that even army leaders are unsure how long they can keep up the unusually high pace of combat tours in Iraq before they trigger an institutional crisis.