Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

“Our future is guaranteed from a national standpoint If we take care of our people,” according to Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This was one of the central points of Admiral Mullen’s talk on the “Future of Global Engagement” at the Brookings Institution today.

Afghani presidential elections coming up in August are forcing the U.S. military to draft a report on the effectiveness of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.

In addition, the law passed by Afghani President Hamid Karzai which prohibits a woman from refusing sexual intercourse with her husband may have signaled the need for yet more work and presence from the troops, implying the road is still long for the soldiers who are stationed there.

On his priorities, Mullen said, “The main effort right now is in Afghanistan. Increase the growth of the Army and the Marine Corps. But now those forces must be put together to rotate in the theater.”

Mullen added that because of the need for troops in different missions, “The numbers (of repeated deployments per soldier) we are getting right now are 3 and 4 but we’ve talked to families that are on their fifth and sixth deployment.”

“Even in our eighth year of war we’re in the beginning of getting at what I consider to be a debt that needs to be repaid for those sacrifices (by the troops), it’s for injuries seen but it’s also for injuries unseen,” said Mullen.

Mullen said that “what we should buy for their future is to make sure we get it right for our people, that’s health care, that’s housing, that's benefits, that's the compensation packages, that's the bonuses... that's where I spend an awful lot of my time with the services chief."