George W. Bush Broke Our Army

That's, or at the least the conclusion that the US Army is broken, is the conclusion of well respected army analyst Andrew Krepinevich in a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments report.

His basic points:

• The quality of enlisted men and officers is decreasing despite significant pay hikes.
• Physical, educational, and "moral" (i.e. criminal conviction) standards have been lowered for recruits.
• NCO quality is suffering, because enlisted men ill suited to leadership are being promoted to NCO status.
• Falling reenlistment numbers.
• Increased use of stop loss to maintain staffing levels.
• The Army is attempting to create units that are simultaneously configured for both conventional and counterinsurgency warfare, and thus under performing at both.

He does not explicitly finger Bush, but Iraq is clearly mentioned as a part of the problem.

His recommendations:

• Make 15 Army BCTs dediucated to counter-insurgency/peacekeeping.
• Delay expanding the army until personnel quality issues are resolved.
• Cancel the FCS, which has dubious utility in a counter-insurgency scenario, and is sucking up too much budget.

It is likely that the ill effects of Iraq will weigh on the army for more than a decade.