In a pair of reports, the Government Accountability Office found that the Defense Department doesn't have enough control over calling up reserve forces to fight an extended war and doesn't even know how many people it needs to insure national defense.
One GAO report found the Pentaon has no plan for having Guard and Reserve forces available when they're needed. DoD is limited to calling up just 1 million Guard and Reservists for no more than 24 months at a time. The GAO found this left the Pentagon short of needed people in 2004 and could lead to the Pentagon eventually running out of forces.
A second GAO report found that the Pentagon has failed to figure out how many people it needs in uniform to put together a national defense strategy. The GAO found that one of the main reasons the DoD had not done the work was that it was limiting money needed for personnel costs for other priorities -- chiefly "transformation." That's the catch-all phrase meant to embody how the Pentagon's chaning its mission for the 21st Century. (GAO)
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