Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
02/20/2008
Pelosi: Comments by General Casey Demonstrate That Iraq War Continues to Strain Our Military
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following
statement on Army Chief of Staff General George Casey’s comments to reporters
yesterday that the stress of repeated Iraq deployments is affecting the quality
of Army recruits, midlevel officer retention, and other factors that are
critical for Army readiness.
“Now approaching its fifth anniversary, the war in
“General Casey’s comments are another reminder that the Iraq
war continues to strain our armed forces and is diminishing our military
readiness and come only two weeks after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral Michael Mullen testified before Congress that our troops are ‘significantly
stressed.’
“General Casey and Admiral Mullen’s statements come on the
heels of growing concerns by military officers, 88 percent of whom said in a
poll this week that they believe the demands of the war have ‘stretched the
U.S. military dangerously thin.’
“Americans are rightly concerned about how much longer our
nation must continue to sacrifice our security for the sake of an Iraqi
government that is unwilling or unable to secure its own future.