Ready, Willing, and Able
Donnelly, Thomas
Ready, Willing, and Able We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too. by Thomas Donnelly In the wake of last week's Iraq-related developments in Washington, the strongest...
...This is not the place to elaborate that argument fully, yet it's worth noting the insight of Andrew Krepinev-ich, director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a former Army officer and author of the classic work The Army and Vietnam...
...This grim logic is well understood by troops serving in Iraq, especially those who also fought in Desert Storm...
...by Thomas Donnelly In the wake of last week's Iraq-related developments in Washington, the strongest quasi-respectable argument available to Democrats who want to oppose President Bush and General Petraeus while sounding responsible is the claim that a troop drawdown larger than the one they propose is needed to "rebalance risk"—that is, that the surge in Iraq has made us more vulnerable elsewhere in the world...
...If they are ordered to retreat from this battle, their next battle is likely to be a lot harder...
...Suppose we collected "actionable" intelligence on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts...
...The way to manage the risks of this extended struggle is to rebuild and reshape our land forces to respond to the challenge...
...We'd launch air and missile strikes and perhaps a special operations raid...
...Dionne, who wrote that "Democrats are now hoping concerned generals will support their case [for withdrawal], even if most Republicans won't...
...But in World War II, strategic realities compelled the Allies to retake Western Europe from the Germans...
...Indeed, the goal of driving a wedge between the military and the Bush administration has been a consistent strategy of the antiwar party...
...Consider the threats the Pentagon regards as most real...
...With so many troops in Iraq, I think our response to an unexpected threat would come at a devastating cost...
...ground troops to do...
...A crisis across the Taiwan Strait or even a Chinese attack would call for the deployment of naval and air power—capabilities not much employed in Iraq...
...As Dionne puts it, "If withdrawing troops from Iraq is dangerous, failing to withdraw them Thomas Donnelly is resident fellow in defense and national security studies at the American Enterprise Institute...
...In an emergency, we can even respond to the call for significant land forces...
...may, in the long run, be even more dangerous...
...For better or worse, it is and will be for quite a while the duty of America's land forces to fight the Long War...
...This has long been a concern to more moderate Democrats, and Rep...
...It's hard to imagine a victory in "The Long War" against revolutionary Islam without success in Iraq...
...Ike Skelton, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (and father of an Army officer), reiterated the position in his prepared statement at the Petraeus-Crocker hearings...
...Again, not really a problem...
...We are fighting in Iraq, they often say, so our children won't have to...
...Fighting now compromises future readiness...
...Of the three great security challenges of our time—the rise of China, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the dangers of revolutionary Islam—it is the third that requires of us strong land power capabilities...
...In the context of the Cold War, the United States could retreat and recover from a loss in Vietnam without having to retake Saigon...
...But responding to even the most nightmarish surprise, such as a mass-destruction attack at home, is hardly impossible...
...This argument is a version of the concerns voiced by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Army chief, Gen...
...It would be a struggle to make ready and to deploy another large land force—although those forces recovering from Iraq and in the reserves represent a superbly trained, equipped, experienced, and powerful force...
...He asked whether "Iraq is the war worth the risk of breaking our Army and being unable to deal with other risks to our nation...
...What are the "other risks to our nation" that are so "unexpected" and would exact such a "devastating cost...
...Yet the military logic behind this argument is weak...
...A withdrawal from Iraq, he says, would not be like the American withdrawal from Saigon, but rather like the British evacuation from Dunkirk...
...Nor should we pretend that there's something more important for U.S...
...Even a North Korean invasion would initially demand the strike power of naval and air forces in support of South Korea's large, well-equipped, and well-trained land forces...
...While not all the battles of this war will be exactly like Iraq, the bitter experience of the last four years should serve as a reminder that we must adapt to the war as it is rather than pretend we have the option of fighting a war we would prefer...
...We should remember that the strains of Iraq come from the length of the mission, not the surge...
...It's a dangerous world and the risks are great, but our ability to respond is likewise great...
...defeat in Iraq...
...George Casey—a point not missed by Washington Post columnist E.J...
...The "surged" force in Iraq of 160,000 represents only about 20 percent of active-duty Army and Marine strength, and less than 15 percent if one includes reserve and National Guard forces...
...The strategic logic of the "risk management" argument is similarly weak: It sharply underplays the negative consequences, in the Middle East and around the world, of a U.S...
Vol. 13 • September 2007 • No. 2
