Afghan commandos sprint to board a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during a mission in the Chawkai district in Afghanistan's Kunar province, Feb. 25, 2012. The commando-led mission was to conduct reconnaissance for a future village stability platform where Afghan forces and coalition special operations forces can live and work with villagers. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Clayton Weis That Ticking Time Bomb Is America's Exhausted Army -- Brian Stewart
Domestic violence, sexual assaults, gang memberships, the U.S. military is reeling from two too-long wars.
Bad things happen when a nation tries to fight too many wars with too few troops. The blunt fact about the U.S. army and Marines — whose difficulties have become the stuff of headlines — is that they are exhausted and at their wits' end.
Armies wear out rapidly under the unique stress of combat, and for a decade now U.S. ground troops have been rotated through three, four and five combat tours lasting up to a year in each case (15 months at the height of Iraq fighting).
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My Comment: As foreign correspondents go, Brian Stewart has one of the best records in the world .... doing the foreign beat and covering conflicts since the early 1980s. His observations and analysis on the U.S. military is troubling, especially summarizing the states of what we now know that many of our returning vets are going through.