Army Times is reporting that the Army still [ed: again?] has a problem getting the bodies into the green bag, and HQ, US Army has come up with a dynamic solution.

The Army is immediately ordering 1,106 former recruiters back to that duty. The soldiers are being pulled from their current assignments and sent to recruiting stations across the nation as the army struggles to meet its mission in signing up 80,000 new soldiers this year.

The short-notice assignments are temporary — they begin Friday and will run no later than Oct. 15.

The Army has several thousand assigned recruiters already. They are paid their regular pay, plus special duty pay since they normally live off the economy, including rent in a civilian pad where rents are normally higher than what’s available just off base. I believe they also get some form of body bonus, but I doubt it’s the $2,000 per that these 1,106 GIs are gong to be paid on this TDY assignment.

The recruiting assignments will be performed in temporary duty (TDY) status, and soldiers will return to home stations and regular assignments after completing their recruiting duties.

Noncommissioned officers selected for these assignments will be eligible for Recruiting Command’s $2,000 Referral Bonus Program.

This means the soldiers are authorized a $2,000 bonus for every applicant who successfully processes into the Army and completes initial entry training.

With two months still to run on this fiscal year, the Army is short approximately 15,000 recruits to fill the quota for the year.

These are the troops needed to sustain Generalissimo Field Marshal Kagan’s surge escalation through the summer of 2008, which is the latest move of the goal posts.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, mentioned none of the proposals in Congress for beginning to withdraw U.S. troops as soon as this fall. But he made clear in an interview that in his area of responsibility south of Baghdad, it will take many more months to consolidate recent gains.

“It’s going to take through [this] summer, into the fall, to defeat the extremists in my battle space, and it’s going to take me into next spring and summer to generate this sustained security presence,” he said, referring to an Iraqi capability to hold gains made by U.S. forces.

Lynch said he had projected in March, when he arrived as part of the troop buildup, that it would take him about 15 months to accomplish his mission, which would be summer 2008.

By shoving all the decision points from September 2007 December 2007 into the Summer of 2008 the Army leadership has guaranteed they get at least three more swings at the piñata before it’s November 2008 and anything that happens after that is of course not Mr Bu$h’s fault. *

Under Lynch’s command are two of the five Army brigades that President Bush ordered to the Baghdad area in January as part of a revised counterinsurgency strategy. As part of that surge of forces, Lynch’s command was created in order to put added focus on stopping the flow of weapons and insurgents into the capital from contentious areas to the south.

The three other brigades are in Baghdad and a volatile province northeast of the capital with the purpose of securing the civilian population in hopes that reduced levels of sectarian violence will give Sunni and Shiite leaders an opportunity to create a government of true national unity and to pass legislation designed to promote reconciliation.

Lynch said that Iraqi security forces are not close to being ready to take over for the American troops. So if the extra troops that were brought in this year are to be sent home in coming months, the insurgents — both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups — will regain control, he said. [emph added]

So, even though they sold Generalissimo Field Marshal Kagan’s escalation as a short term fix – surprise! You fucked up! You trusted us!

“To me, it would be wrong to take ground from the enemy at a cost — I’ve lost 80 soldiers under my command — 56 of those since the fourth of April. It would be wrong to have fought and won that terrain, only to turn around and give it back,” he said in an interview with two reporters who traveled with him by helicopter to visit troops south and west of Baghdad.

Because it would be wrong to have soldiers killed in a foolish enterprise drawn up by a political hack and not continue to throw more bodies into the qWagmire.

As I’ve said before, they should have shut down all the training bases in the US, except for one. They should have sent every swinging dick in CONUS – except for the recruiters, and some DIs to train up the recruits.

The best solution, of course, is to collect up every single walking soldier – everyone in uniform – every swinging dick of them (apologies to the ladies reading this) – including all those female soldiers, who obviously are not as above, and move them all the Iraq. NOW. AT ONCE. TODAY. That includes all the training cadres and Drill Sergeants, except a few that we’ll keep at one training base in the US. It includes every single last solitary Brigadier General and Colonel messenger boy in the Pentagon, every last Major assigned to counting paper clips each morning and ensuring they’re all facing in the same direction. Every single Captain whose job is to carry a General’s briefcase. Everybody goes.

Then, six months from now, there will be no more excuses, no more mealy-mouthed weaseling from these warmongering cowards at the White House, AEI, Weekly Standard, and Fox Noise. And then the nation can get on with repairing the damage these creatures have caused.

What‘s that you say? What will we do with all the extra officers if we clean out the Pentagon?

Maintaining 156,000 troops in Iraq from now until Mr Bu$h saddles up ole Marines #1 and rides off into the sunset, and dust of historical obscurity is going to require sending just about every swinging dick in a military uniform. (Apologies to the uniformed women of the US Armed Forces, who truly clank when they walk.) That would include a very large number of Majors, Colonels and even Brigadier Generals currently employed as messengers, walking folders around the corridors of the Pentagon. We could probably field at least one more brigade with those linoleum-trotters and never feel the difference. They could take turns playing brigade commander, and build up their Form 20s.

* - While discussing Mr Bu$h's scheduled departure in January 2009 it's important to remember that the Republican Party has no intention of losing more power in the November 2008 elections. As we have seen not only the Justice Department, but all the other Departments have been marshaled to ensure the election of Republicans gets the full support of the entire Federal Government.

This presupposes of course that there is no tragic and deadly terror-linked event in October 2008 which would cause Mr Bu$h to regretfully suspend the elections in order to maintain order and the continuity of the Government. Naturally, elections would be continued just as soon as the National Emergency is over.

Naturally.