Brad Guth wrote:
"Rand Simberg" wrote in message


What planet are you posting this from, and what color is the sky
there?

He's obviously not from your Old Testament thumping planet, where the
sky is nearly always blood red from the ongoing collateral damage and
carnage of the innocent.
-
Brad Guth




Rand has a tendency to not read the actual numbers..


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120401347.html

"ANNISTON, Ala. -- Field upon field of more than 1,000 battered M1
tanks, howitzers and other armored vehicles sit amid weeds here at the
15,000-acre Anniston Army Depot -- the idle, hulking formations symbolic
of an Army that is wearing out faster than it is being rebuilt.

The Army and Marine Corps have sunk more than 40 percent of their ground
combat equipment into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to
government data....

....

Partly as a result of the shortages, many U.S. units are rated "unready"
to deploy, officials say, raising alarm in Congress and concern among
military leaders at a time when Iraq strategy is under review by the
White House and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group."


"Equipment shipped back from Iraq is stacking up at all the Army depots:
More than 530 M1 tanks, 220 M88 wreckers and 160 M113 armored personnel
carriers are sitting at Anniston. The Red River Army Depot in Texas has
700 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 450 heavy and medium-weight trucks,
while more than 1,000 Humvees are awaiting repair at the Letterkenny
Army Depot in Pennsylvania.

Despite the work piling up, the Army's depots have been operating at
about half their capacity because of a lack of funding for repairs. In
the spring, a funding gap caused Anniston and other depots to lose about
a month's worth of work, said Brig. Gen. Robert Radin, deputy chief of
staff for operations at the Army Materiel Command at Fort Belvoir."


-------------

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13563055/

"The latest costs include the transfer of more than 1,200 2 1/2-ton
trucks, nearly 1,100 Humvees and $8.8 million in other equipment from
the U.S. Army to the Iraqi security forces.

Army and Marine Corps leaders are expected to testify before Congress
Tuesday and outline the growing costs of the war — with estimates that
it will cost between $12 billion and $13 billion a year for equipment
repairs, upgrades and replacements from now on.

The Marine Corps has said in recent testimony before Congress that it
would need nearly $12 billion to replace and repair all the equipment
worn out or lost to combat in the past four years. So far, the Marines
have received $1.6 billion toward those costs to replace and repair the
equipment.

According to the Army, the $17 billion includes:

* $2.1 billion in equipment that must be replaced because of battle
losses.
* About $6.5 billion for repairs.
* About $8.4 billion to rebuild or upgrade equipment.

One of the growing costs is the replacement of Humvees, which are
wearing out more quickly because of the added armor they are carrying to
protect soldiers from roadside bombs. The added weight is causing them
to wear out faster, decreasing the life of the vehicles."

---------



By my count, that is a loss of 1800 humvees from the US inventory and
1600 trucks. 540 M-1 tanks is a significant fraction also. You also
have to consider the deployable force remaining. It looks like most
of the deployable equipment is already in theater.