Credibility (2 updates, below).

Putz, 9/21/06:

THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD NEWS: "The Army is ending its best recruiting year since 1997 and expecting similar success in 2007 . . .

Putz, 5/18/2006:

STRATEGYPAGE: In the last seven months, the U.S. Army has met or exceeded all of its recruiting goals...

Putz, 4/10/2006:

GOOD NEWS: "Two of every three eligible soldiers continue to re-enlist, putting the Army, which has endured most of the fighting in Iraq, ahead of its annual goal."

Today, 12/15/06:

Warning that the active-duty U.S. Army will break under the strain of today's war zone rotations, the top Army general called Thursday for expanding the force by 7,000 or more soldiers a year and lifting Pentagon restrictions on involuntary call-ups of Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker issued his most dire assessment yet of the toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the nation's main ground force. At one point, he banged his hand on a House committee room table, saying the continuation of today's mistaken Pentagon policies was "not right."

The burden on the Army's 507,000 active-duty soldiers, who now spend more time at war than at home, is simply too great, he said. "At this pace, without recurrent access to the reserve components, through remobilization, we will break the active component," he said, provoking murmurs around the hearing room.

UPDATE:

Glenn Greenwald has a related post about Putz's and other "conservative" bloggers judgement.

UPDATE 2:

Putz has now written a lengthy post about this very topic. Coincidence?

Notice how he nearly breaks his own arm, patting himself on the back for his prescience. "Back in 2004, in the face of good news about recruitment and retention, I observed: "Nonetheless, I suspect that it's a good time to be looking at enlarging the military and adjusting the force structure."

2004? How about 2006, when you kept starting every post about the Army and recruiting with "GOOD NEWS" and linked to every possible positively spun statistic on the subject? But don't take my word for it, check out this list and see how Putz has covered the subject.

Also, note that he doesn't seem the least bit bothered that Bush's war of choice in Iraq, which he has mindlessly supported and insisted has been going just splendidly, is the root cause of the Army being at the point of breaking, as the General said. And yet, it's all Clinton's fault.

Remarkable.