Schoomaker Wants More:

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker continued his plea for more money for the Army during remarks at the Association of the US Army conference in Washington this week. He and Army Secretary Francis Harvey have not submitted the Army’s 2008 budget request, though it was due in August. They are working, with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s permission, to try to get a bigger portion of the Administration budget. Schoomaker told attendees that the Army’s investment accounts had been “underfunded” by some $100 billion over the last 15 years, leading to equipment shortages of about $56 billion. He also told attendees that he sees no “common understanding” in this country about what it will take to win the war on terror such as “existed during the Cold War in the form of containment. He said he is neither an “alarmist nor a pessimist” because he believes a strategic concensus is as possible as it is necessary.”