Most Army Guard units not prepared for combat

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, August 1, 2006

WASHINGTON – More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard’s 34 brigades are not combat ready, mostly because of equipment shortages that will cost up to $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum spoke to a group of defense reporters after Army officials, analysts and members of Congress disclosed that two-thirds of the active Army’s brigades are not ready for war.

The budget won’t allow the military to complete the personnel training and equipment repairs and replacement that must be done when units return home after deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan, they say.

In a related development, the Senate late Tuesday agreed to an amendment, offered by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to add $7.8 billion for the Army and $5.3 billion for the Marine Corps to the defense spending bill for 2007. The added funding would bring the bill to a total of $467 billion, including $63.1 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq oil pipeline behind schedule

A project to build a critical oil pipeline in northern Iraq has fallen more than two years behind schedule, costing the Iraqi government $14.8 billion in revenue and jeopardizing the safety of local water supplies, according to a new report by U.S. government auditors. A recent assessment by the Pentagon-led Project and Contracting Office, which oversees reconstruction, said one segment of the 31-mile project was 80 percent complete. The Army Corps of Engineers said the same segment was only 10 percent finished.

Guantanamo Bay general retires

Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former top officer of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was honored Monday in a retirement ceremony in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes. Miller was given the Distinguished Service Medal, a top honor for general officers.

Bush passes annual physical

President Bush’s doctors pronounced him healthy and in better shape than most men his age Tuesday, but the president himself seemed a little upset about packing on five pounds. Doctors treated a small precancerous lesion on his left arm but indicated it was nothing serious. They told Bush 60, to use sunscreen and wear a hat.

California: Forest roads lawsuit

The Bush administration had the right to overturn a ban on road construction in untouched parts of national forests, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte said Tuesday in San Francisco. She said the Forest Service appeared to be “on solid ground” last year when it reversed a Clinton administration rule banning new roads on nearly a third of federal forests, but may have needed to weigh possible environmental effects at the same time. Laporte said she did not know when she would issue a final decision on the lawsuit brought by Washington and three other states as well as 20 environmental groups.

Utah: Storm damages airport

A storm packing rain, hail and 80-mph gusts of wind Tuesday ruined roofs, destroyed trees and cut power to thousands of people as it raged across northern Utah. At Provo Airport, several small planes were flipped over and the roof of a fire station collapsed on a fire truck.

Texas: Floods swamp El Paso

A third day of heavy rain caused widespread flooding around El Paso on Tuesday, swamping mountainside homes, forcing evacuations and closing major roads. Authorities said at least 60 people had been rescued, some standing on roofs, others atop cars. The rain threatened to push the Rio Grande over its banks and more than doubled the normal speed of the river’s current, authorities said. The river started to recede Tuesday night.