OPINION:
Leading from behind gets a president nowhere, and is little short of criminal folly. After eight years, the Obama doctrine of “leadership” has run its course and has left the American armed forces seriously depleted. President-elect Donald Trump has the needed clear-eyed view of the U.S. military as it is and what must be done to fix it. It won’t be cheap, but losing a war isn’t, either.
The Heritage Foundation’s third annual Index of U.S. Military Strength rates the nation’s armed forces as “marginal,” and the Army in particular as “weak.” It’s a picture that clashes with the popular notion that America’s armed forces are the best and baddest in the world. Without the men and materiel to accomplish their mission, the bravest bleed like everybody else. Fifteen years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has taken its toll, and President Obama has balked at doing anything about it.
Money-saving troop cuts are on track to reduce regular Army numbers to 475,000 this year and to 460,000 in 2017, which would be the smallest force since Pearl Harbor. The contraction has led to a 16 percent loss in strength but double that number in front-line warriors — brigade combat teams and combat aviation brigades. “In summary,” the Heritage index observes, “the Army is smaller, older, and weaker, a condition that is unlikely to change in the near future.”
The Navy, Air Force, Marines and U.S. nuclear force fare only slightly better, each earning a “marginal” rating. But doing so requires the services to sacrifice long-term readiness in order to maintain current operations. In practical terms, it means building more of the needed ships and planes to avoid obsolescence. The Air Force is 700 pilots short and only 43 percent of the Marines’ air fleet is ready to fly.
The gold standard of U.S. military capability has slipped from the ability to fight two major regional wars simultaneously to one, while dealing with several minor conflicts. Even scaled-down capacity is under strain. “As currently postured, the U.S. military is only marginally able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests,” the Heritage study observes.
Mr. Obama’s determined belief that a softer, kinder, gentler, smaller U.S. military would soothe global hostilities reflects a woeful ignorance of what the nation’s arms must stand ready to do. Put bluntly, an army and navy must be capable of killing people and breaking things, and in whatever number is necessary. Vladimir Putin’s needling of his Eastern neighbors, Iran’s deviltry in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, China’s co-opting of the Southwest Pacific waters, and North Korea’s nuclear saber-rattling reflects a cold understanding of that.
President-elect Donald Trump’s blueprint for rebuilding the U.S. military shares benchmarks with Heritage: rebuilding the Army to 540,000 soldiers, boosting the Navy from 272 ships to 350 ships, expanding the Air Force from 1,159 fighter aircraft to 1,200, and increasing the Marine Corps to 36 battalions. The success of Mr. Trump’s plans will depend on a booming U.S. economy to pay for the urgently needed upgrades beyond this year’s defense budget of $580 billion.
A Pew Research Center poll finds that 80 percent of voters name terrorism as an issue second only in importance to the economy. With the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries reporting that terror attacks reached an 11-year high in 2015, their concerns are well-founded. Protection from the growing threats from a dangerous world is Job One for the U.S. military. It’s essential that Mr. Trump and his defense team have the financial resources to keep Americans safe. Anything less is folly.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.