Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Not telling most of you anything by noticing this but....

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday proposed adding 92,000 troops to the Army and Marine Corps, initiating the biggest increase in U.S. ground forces since the 1960s to shore up a military that top officers warn is on the verge of breaking from prolonged fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011102146.html?referrer=email

This I think is the backstage deal behind Bush's phoney surge: "go along with this tits-on-a-bull 20k new buffalo roam, Gen'rul, sir, and you'll get those new brigades you've been wanting so bad."

Cheney actually knocked serveral balls into their assigned pockets here, but none with so steep a long-run price tag as this: more than $10 billion annually. Multiplying back in the standard Pentagon "prospective discount", I make that prolly 30 billion per year, when all is said and done.

But hey, Dick needed to help the brass hats

underscore the Pentagon's conviction that today's wars and anti-terrorism operations will endure for many years. "We call those 'long war' forces," a senior military official said.

My frugal heart wonders, does this spell the end for the late unlamented Rummy's Robo-boots vision? That would be bad news for the high-living high-tech arms sector. Or are these new brigades a pure add-on -- belt and suspenders?