Army's Equipment, Training Shortages Hit Home

Here's a sobering sentence in today's New York Times piece on the struggles of the Army's Third Infantry Division to prepare to go back to Iraq for a third tour of duty:

Other than the 17 brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan, only two or three combat brigades in the entire Army â€" perhaps 7,000 to 10,000 troops â€" are fully trained and sufficiently equipped to respond quickly to crises, said a senior Army general.

The Third Infantry Division's Second Brigade has no tanks or other armored vehicles to use in training, and must rely on computer simulations.