Gear shortage to haunt U.S. military years after Iraq war

The U.S. military is so short of equipment that it will take years after the war in Iraq ends to bring it up to normal levels, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Peter Pace acknowledged.

"It will take end of war plus two years to work off the backlog," said one of Pace's latest testimony to the Congress which was quoted by Friday's online edition of Defense News.

"Without being able to give you a definite end of war (date), I can't tell you exactly how long," it said.

Pace said that 40 percent of U.S. army and marine corps equipment have already been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan or being repaired in depots.

Some lawmakers like John Murtha, also pointed out that nearly all the propositioned U.S. military equipment stored at locations around the world has been spent, save for one location.

"The vast majority of our army units here at home are critically short of equipment and personnel," Murtha said, adding this was leaving some stateside units "at the lowest readiness level."

Many U.S. officials and experts agreed that the Iraq war, which is in its 5th year, has severely stretched the U.S. military, eating up a large chunk of its equipment and seriously weakening its combat-readiness.

Source: Xinhua