The Air Force's top general expressed frustration on Tuesday with the
reassignment of troops under his command to ground jobs for which they
were not trained, ranging from guarding prisoners to driving trucks and
typing.

Gen. Michael Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, said that over
20,000 airmen have been assigned worldwide into roles outside their
specialties.

With President Bush and Congress in a standoff over Iraq spending,
the Pentagon is shifting money among services and accounts, including
drawing down funds earmarked for other later purposes.

"Somebody's going to have to pay us back," Moseley said. "I don't
have to want to have concerns about getting that money back."

In a breakfast session with a group of reporters, Moseley said he
was trying to be realistic. "We live in a joint world. We live in a
military that's at war. And we live in a situation where, if we can
contribute, then sign me up for it."

Still, the Air Force general added, "I'm less supportive of things
outside our competency."

He said people were being assigned to jobs they weren't trained for.
He cited Air Force airmen being used to guard prisoners and to serve as
drivers and cited one instance in which an Air Force surgeon was
assigned typing chores after three days at her new post.

"We got her back," Moseley said.

Others are being assigned to help the Army provide security in Iraq
and Afghanistan.

Moseley said he didn't mind the use of airmen as drivers as much as
some of the other new duties usually performed by the Army, such as
guarding prisoners.

"Not only do we not have a prison, but very rarely do we have
anybody in prison," he joked.

"So, to take our people and train them to be a detainee-guarding
entity requires `x' amount of time away from their normal job," said
Moseley.

"Those are the things that are very frustrating," he said.

He said the swap-outs come at a time when the Air Force's budget is
burdened, when there is little money for new aircraft and when
maintaining an aging fleet of older planes, some of them going back to
the 1950s and 1960s, is getting increasingly expensive.

"Operational and maintenance costs have gone up 180 percent over the
past 10 years, operating these old aircraft," he said.

As part of Bush's troop buildup in order to try to secure Baghdad
and nearby hot spots, there are currently about 146,000 U.S. troops in
Iraq.

Of these, about 9,500 are Air Force. An additional 1,100 airmen are
in Afghanistan, according to the Air Force. Roughly 24,100 Air Force
personnel are stationed throughout the broader region.

With much of the action in Iraq now focused on
neighborhood-to-neighborhood efforts to contain violence, there has been
less attention on the roles of the Air Force and the Navy.

Moseley said the Air Force still has vital responsibilities in Iraq,
including striking targets, surveillance and search and rescue missions.

The Pentagon says it has enough money to pay for the Iraq war
through June. The Army is taking "prudent measures" aimed at ensuring
that delays in the bill financing the war do not harm troop readiness,
such as moving money from other accounts, according to instructions sent
to Army commanders and budget officials April 14.

The Defense Department also said it plans to ask Congress to approve
the temporary reprogramming of $1.6 billion from Navy and Air Force pay
accounts to the Army's operating account.

The $70 billion that Congress provided in September for military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has mostly run out, and the Army has
told department officials to slow the purchase of nonessential repair
parts and other supplies, restrict the use of government charge cards
and limit travel.

On another subject, Moseley said he had ordered a review of
vulnerabilities of U.S. military satellites, partially in response to
China's anti-missile test in January, in which it used a missile to
destroy one of its own old weather satellites. He said he found China's
move alarming.

China's motives remain unclear, but demonstrating that it can shoot
down one of its own satellites also suggests it could knock another
nation's satellites out of the sky if it chose, which Moseley said would
be widely seen as an act of war.

Yep. Too bad congress is too political to do what's right and let the
funding through like it SHOULD go through.

i agree that congress should not tie the hands of the troops

but bush should have sett up funding long ago

this should not be payed for by emergancy funding
after the first year

this is the only conflict that has been financed with emergancy funding
for this amount of time

basicly he did it by not doing it right again

He doesn't have a CHOICE. Congress won't give him a bill without that
damned "withdrawal date".

it should have had a budget setaside in the first budget after the
invasion

and if they don't base it then gov shuts down

he should have done it right when he had their support

i agree time table is ludacris

it would say well hey i only gotta wait x amount of time
and i win

but bush needed better advisers instead of daddys crew

after all cia is known for covert actions

but hey what do i know