House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) delivered a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in which he issued warnings about how un ready the US Military is to not only secure a victory in Afghanistan – which he referred to as a country where we have a much to lose as we do anywhere else. He also warned that we are not ready to face any other conflict that might come up.

He is worried about two situations in particular. One the fact that the current military operations are putting too much of a strain on the militaries readiness and two that the deterioration of security and stability in Afghanistan that will require more than the 3,000 troops that were recently sent there.

According to Skelton two-thirds of the Army’s combat brigades in the U.S. are not ready for duty. There is such a great short fall in Army personnel that the Navy and the Air Force have supplied 20,000 of their personnel to fill in the gaps performing tasks that would normally be performed by Army personnel like convoy security and logistics support. He issued a strong warning that we should not think another conflict cannot turn up, because it very well could and we would not be prepared to handle it.

In order to combat the problems, he says we must establish the correct balance between the present needs and the long term health of all of our military. He also believes that we cannot continue to keep over 100,000 troops in Iraq because it is causing an imbalance in the way our troops are used and deployed and until we redeploy the troops, we will not be able to address the readiness problems.

He also said that we must focus more of our attention on Afghanistan, but we must use diplomacy and focus on economic development We also should be getting more help from our allies and together we should make the war in Afghanistan one of our top priorities to make sure that the Al Qaeda and the Taliban are completely destroyed and that Afghanistan will not be a place where terrorists can build bases in the future.

He does give credit where credit is due, saying that Secretary of Defense Gates has been arguing for many of the solutions that he mentioned, but unless we are ready to take decisive action, the problems will only grow and grow.

If what the chairman says is the true situation, especially with all the talk recently about a threat from Iran, we have much to do to give our troops what they need. Afghanistan should be made a priority, both with military and diplomatic measures. The job there is far from finished. Now we have to see what bills the committee is planing to put forth and if the Congress and the Administration can get together and work out a solution.