Giuliani Backs Army Buildup Nearing 600K
JIM DAVENPORT | AP | May 5, 2007
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani on Saturday called for boosting the Army by another 35,000 troops, saying the nation must project strength and better handle the aftermath of war.
"President Bush has increased our military strength and further increases are planned, but we need to do more _ much more. We need a force that can both deter aggression and meet many challenges that may come our way," the former New York City mayor told a class of 438 cadets during a commencement speech at The Citadel, a public military college.
"I believe America needs at least 10 new combat brigades above the additions that are already proposed by President Bush and are already in the budget," Giuliani said.
Brigades typically have about 3,500 troops. The Army now has almost 512,000 troops, the limit set by Congress.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates in January recommended to Bush that the Army over the next five years increase its active-duty soldiers by 65,000 to 547,000. Giuliani would raise that limit to 582,000. Huffington Post
Rudy Giuliani's plan would be the first step towards the ( D ) word, that word being DRAFT. This would be the only way to increase troop strength to the levels that dear old Rudy would like to have and with so many of our current troops opting out of re-enlistment and many citizens not even thinking of joining because of this Iraq fiasco, the draft is it.
"The reality is that in this world today, there are people _ terrorists, Islamic, radical terrorists _ who are planning as we sit here at this graduation, who are planning to come here and kill us," Giuliani told them.
Maybe when they get here, Giuliani will step in to save one of us, but, I doubt it. He'll be to busy hiding his sorry ass!