General warns Pentagon of 'broken' reserve forces

FT.com / World / Asia-Pacific - General warns Pentagon of 'broken' reserve forces:
By Peter Spiegel, Defence Correspondent
January 7 2005 02:00

The US general who commands the army's reserve forces has warned the Pentagon that his units are now unable to meet their mission requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan and are 'rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force'.

In a bluntly worded memo to the army's chief of staff on December 20, first disclosed this week by the Baltimore Sun newspaper, Lt Gen James Helmly said Pentagon policies governing the deployment of reservists were 'dysfunctional' and were 'eroding daily' his ability to create an effective force."