Hello viseu, and thank you for the interesting question.
Indeed, it does appear that 500,000 U.S. troops were sent to the Gulf War:
?Military buildup continued from there, eventually reaching 500,000
troops.? (?Gulf War,? Fact Index:
http://www.fact-index.com/g/gu/gulf_war.html
and ?The U.S. had more than 500,000 troops in the Persian Gulf War,
while the non-U.S. coalition forces equaled roughly 160,000, or 24
percent, of all forces.? (?Gulf War Facts,? CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/gulf.war/facts/gulfwar/ )
The number of U.S. troops currently in Iraq is closer to 140,000:
?While more than 140,000 US troops in Iraq continue trying to impose
security in advance of the June 30?? (?US in Search of Allies in
Afghanistan,? Anti War: http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=2853 )
?Of the 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, as many as 100,000 could be sent
home beginning in January?? (?Bennett expects 100,000 fewer GIs in
Iraq in '05,? Sale Lake Tribune:
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06082004/utah/173604.asp )
and ?Schoomaker said the current stress on the U.S. military, which
now has about 138,000 troops in Iraq and 20,000 in Afghanistan, would
not derail the Army's drive...? (?Iraq Will Remain Dangerous,? Wired
News: http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=879094&tw=wn_wire_story
)
The current military forces aren?t any smaller than they were during
the Gulf War, either:
?The Army's top general on Tuesday vigorously opposed calls for
expanding his branch of the military, saying the current force of
roughly 500,000 is big enough to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
for at least the next three years.? (?Army Says it has Enough Troops,?
LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-troops16jun16,1,4411930.story?coll=la-headlines-world
; requires free registration )
I think the idea that our troops are spread thin comes from the following:
First, in the current war in Iraq, the U.S. is using a goodly number
of reservists (100,000, according to the LA Times article)--and they
are being included in the 500,000 figure. Yet reservists aren?t
considered ?regular? forces, and there's been a lot of complaint that
reservists are serving too much and too long.
(The reason we probably have more reservists now than we did during
the Gulf War? President Clinton cut back extensively on our military,
and there was little time to build up our troops before we went to
Afghanistan and then Iraq.)
The other half of the equation is that we have U.S. troops elsewhere
in the world. Military plans, according the Wired News story, are to
?pull thousands of U.S. troops out of South Korea and Europe. The
Pentagon announced this month that it wants to remove about 12,500 of
the 37,000 troops in South Korea and defense officials confirmed
privately that as many as two U.S. Army divisions may leave Germany.?
In other words, the U.S. has a fair number of troops in countries
where there is no current conflict?and we have not yet shifted them
away from those countries and into Iraq.
I hope this helps,
Kriswrite
RESEARCH STRATEGY:
Google Search:
"Desert Storm" 500,000 troops
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&c2coff=1&q=%22Desert+Storm%22+500%2C000+troops
Google News Search:
"troops in Iraq" 100000
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&c2coff=1&tab=wn&q=%22troops+in+Iraq%22+100000&btnG=Search+News |
Clarification of Answer by
kriswrite-ga
on
23 Jun 2004 12:27 PDT
Actually, President Clinton did cut back our military dramatically.
According to NewsMax, former Reagan Secretary of Defense Caspar
Weinberger said that President Clinton cut the army to less than half
its Gulf War size. "Just the Army alone...was over 900,000...and now
it's under 400,000 - just about 400,000, which is a tremendous drop.
And that's just one service." So, then, during the Gulf War, we still
had quite a number of military elsewhere in the world. ("Weinberger:
Clinton Cut Army to Less Than Half its Gulf War Size," reprinted on
papillions art plance: http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/weinberg.htm
The News Max archives show this article in a search, but the actual
page containing the article is currently resulting in an error
message. You can go here: http://www.newsmax.com/archives.shtml and
type in: Clinton cuts army, checking results for 2001, to get the
results.)
There is absolutely no indication anywhere that reservists were used
in large numbers during the Gulf War.
Although we may not always agree with everything the LA Times (for
example) puts in print, the U.S. Government sends out press releases
and gives press conferences to such media, which is where these stats
come from. You can find such press releases at the United Stated
Department of Defense website: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/
In addition, if you look at the Google searches provided, you'll see
multiple stories backing up the statistics provided; I included the
sources I did simply because they were among the first and most recent
sources.
Here is a CNN page that may also prove helpful; "The Unfinished War:"
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/gulf.war/updates/armies/
According to these stats, in 1990, the U.S. had "2.04 million active
personnel and 1.1 million reservists." In 2000, "1.38 million active
personnel and 1.5 million reservists." Clearly, our "regulars" have
dropped.
Hope this helps,
Kriswrite
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Clarification of Answer by
kriswrite-ga
on
28 Jun 2004 09:31 PDT
Hello Viseu~
I'm familiar with the link you cited; however, it, too, is a secondary
source, and it doesn't appear to contradict any stats I already
researched for you. In the future, you might wish to tell Researchers
in advance that you seek only primary sources. Otherwise, quotes from
officials like Schoomaker will continue to be considered good sources.
I am sorry you aren't satisfied with the Answer; I'm not sure what
sort of information you are seeking, but it seems clear that a drop in
regulars and an increase in reservists is the primary key to your
question.
In the meantime, you may wish to request a refund; for information on
how to do this, see GA's "Helps & Tips" page:
http://www.answers.google.com/answers/help.html
Kind regards,
Kriswrite
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