Some Thoughts on the Military

Read an article from Mackubin T. Owens on the current readiness of the Military. He states, "The Clinton administration paid lip service to readiness and transformation while under-funding both. Unfortunately, the under-funding continued under the Bush administration. Until 9/11, OMB refused to provide money to fund both current readiness and transformation, forcing Pentagon planners to choose between them. Most of the increase in defense spending since 9/11 has gone to the war on terrorism and to pay for personnel costs. It has not for the most part gone to increase U.S. capabilities . . .

In discussing the planned invasion of Iraq, he states, "Soldiers always want to hedge, and for obvious reason. They want to reduce risk and uncertainty. But they are not always right. (Take the case of George McClellan in 1862.) Leaks leading up to the war indicated that the military was only lukewarm about attacking Iraq. There are many recent cases in which the uniformed military has provided high estimates for what it would take to do a particular job in an effort to dissuade civilian authorities from undertaking it. Colin Powell did it in 1990-91. There is some indication that the uniformed military was doing the same thing this time.

On the other hand, some civilian technophiles wanted a much smaller force, some going so far as to tout the "Afghanistan model" of special forces and long-range air strikes. And, of course, air-power advocates argued that a "shock and awe" air campaign would make ground forces unnecessary.

The resulting plan was indeed a compromise, and that’s not a bad thing. It was a bold plan; it was also a flexible one. It is too bad that Helprin associates himself with the arguments of the second-guessing pundits and reporters who were quick to claim that the plan was flawed and that the force assembled for the war not large enough. This claim is essentially meaningless without considering "risk," which is measured in terms of the possible costs (time and casualties) of a given course of action."

His points are interesting, but he neglects one political aspect of President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfelds desire to run a more efficient, cheaper Military. They don't want to spend money that could be going to a tax cut.

Two to go.