I had no idea.
If the U.S. were to face a new conventional threat, its military could not respond effectively without turning to air power, officials and analysts say.
That is the ultimate upshot of the war in Iraq: a response elsewhere would consist largely of U.S. fighters and bombers — even, perhaps, some degree of nuclear strike — because so many ground troops are tied up in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
And that leaves at least some senior U.S. leaders and analysts crossing their fingers.
“I believe that we, as a nation, are at risk of mission failure should our Army be called to deploy to an emerging threat,” Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee, said last year, basing his assessment on classified Army readiness reports.
Some days when it’s raining and nothing seems like it’s going well, I close my eyes and imagine a world where people defending the Iraq war take into account that throwing our entire land army into a grinding open-ended occupation actually costs something. And then giant sparkling rainbows emerge singing out of my ass.
Jake
“We had to nuke Iran, we didn’t have the ground forces to invade!”
peach flavored shampoo
I’ve always used “upshot” as a synonym for “favorable outcome”. I cannot for the life of me believe that’s what they mean here–that it’s a good thing to have to turn to nukes?
Being that the link is a military mag/blog, are they happy/encouraged to have to use nukes? Are they all neocons?
4tehlulz
Exactly how the Air Force likes it.
gypsy howell
Oh, like air strikes and bombing campaigns wouldn’t have been our FIRST response to a “threat’ anyway.
And don’t forget Blackwater. We still have Blackwater as ground troops. (I use the term “we” loosely.)
Davebo
Keep in mind that the last time I checked over 400 F-15’s were still grounded due to structural failures.
So we don’t have the ground troops, and we have only F-16’s the Navy’s F-18’s and a few F-22’s to provide air superiority.
I wouldn’t want to be an echo driver if the shit hits the fan.
Davis X. Machina
Nonsense. We have the greatest armed student financial aid scheme armed jobs training program armed forces in the world.
Davis X. Machina
Hmn.. strikethrough works on preview, but not on post….
Z
I’m not worried. I know that if the situation in Iran escalates, I can count on the 101st Keyboard brigade to send nasty emails to the enemy. /snark
Z
And if that still doesn’t stop Iran, they can taunt them a second time.
gypsy howell
It all made perfect sense to me.
Tsulagi
If the Marine Corps Times used tags for their stories, they could pretty much file this one under “Duh!”
Billy K
You don’t have to be a US citizen now to join the Army now, so why don’t we draft a bunch of Iraqis to help with our troop shortage? I keep hearing how great their soldiers are…
F. Frederson
Who could have known that a land war in Asia would tie up all of the troops?
Haltelcere
Didn’t the conventional wisdom used to be that bombings alone was never effective?
Chris Dowd
Well then, we had better spend more money on the military then! That is the purpose of this actually. Coming out of Iraq is not an option- so the drums beat for a larger force to “defend” the “Homeland”.
The reality? There is no conventional threat to the United States at all. There really never has been. Hitler wasn’t going to meet Tojo at the Mississippi and divide up America. This country has no peer threat in it’s own hemisphere. It occupies the most defensible real estate of any major power in history. It could only be invaded by the launching of the most Herculean of efforts by several major powers at once and it would fail because of supply issues in short order.
This country does not have a single natural enemy. The reason why DC wages war so often is because it can as there are almost no consequences to them for doing so. At worst, after killing a couple million locals somewhere, DC picks up and comes homes and builds a memorial to the rubes who died fighting there, and they plan the next intervention.
War has consequences for every other power on Earth- but America. China, Russia, India, Germany- these countries have neighbors that could clobber them. The US doesn’t. So getting into little dust up wars half a globe away is recreration for DC. A way to make money. Something to do for our Leaders to build a “Legacy” or get in the history books.
The US wages war because it can- without consequence to our rulers.
There are no real threats to the US- and there never have been. This country shouldn’t be spending 60 billion of “defense” much less 600 billion.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
You see, what they never told us is that DARPA created a machine to turn flowers into ultimate soldiers. So when the Iraqis greeted us with flowers, we’d be able to replenish our forces.
But because they’re ingrates that don’t understand our benevolence, we’re stuck. It’s the Iraqis’ faults for this mess.
Cain
Next thing you know, they’ll try to go up against sicillians to the death!
cain
The Other Steve
That’s not true. We still have our Navy.
Granted, they were recently defeated at the Battle of The Hormuz by a fleet of fishing boats.
markus
If the U.S. were to face a new conventional threat
Such as? Cuba? China? Who or what are these fuckwits talking about in an effort to drive home the point that the Iraq war is a severe strain on resources?
Scotty
Bush never played Risk as a kid.
Dennis - SGMM
Who or what are these fuckwits talking about in an effort to drive home the point that the Iraq war is a severe strain on resources?
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sub-saharan Africa, Korea, and Taiwan all come to mind for starters. That our forces are completely tied down in Iraq might be an inducement to mischief by any number of actors.
Jake
Canada decides it’s sick of all the jokes…
Punchy
Brilliant.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
What is it that you’re looking for. You’re holding in your hands.
a severe strain on resources. For a backwater, worthless piece of desert inhabited by people with human sophistication that makes Fred Phelps look like Nelson Mandela.
/me sits back, waits for “important in the Global War on Terror” plotline from 24 to be used as defense.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
Oh, sure he did. Everyone knows that Asia puts out the most
oiltroops upon domination.UnkyT
Kyle: Hey Stan, did you see that rainbow this morning?
Stan: Yeah, it was huge.
Cartman: Huh! I hate those things.
Kyle: Nobody hates rainbows.
Stan: Yeah, what’s there to hate about rainbows?
Cartman: Well, you know you’ll just be sitting there minding your own business and they’ll come marching in and crawl up your leg and start biting the inside of your ass and you’ll be like – Hey! Get out of my ass you stupid rainbows!
F. Frederson
He did, but the servants finished the games for him… and kicked the other kids asses, as far as he knows.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
No, he knew they did poorly, but he figured that the class yearbook would vindicate him, mention him as a visionary Risk player for taking on the Mideast crossroads with 5 troops and no alliances.
The Other Steve
Defending Taiwan will be primarily a Naval engagement.
Granted, we still have that problem of our Navy being afraid of fishing boats. With China having recently purchased a 40 year old aircraft Carrier from Argentina, we may have to haul up the white flag.
The Other Steve
Didn’t you ever read Dune? Everybody knows the desert people are the most dangerous warriors.
If we don’t fight them now, they’ll come over here with their advanced robotic technology and kick our asses.
Zifnab
Because lets get real. If Clinton hadn’t put all those gays in our military back in ’93, we’d totally be winning our three-front war right now.
That “Bush is Hitler” analogy never looked so depressing.
Zifnab
No one, at least in the Bush Administration, gives to farts about Taiwan. If China were to invade tomorrow, I doubt the White House would do more than issue a stern press release of disapproval. Take a look at how we handled Kim Jong-Il or Darfur. If you don’t have oil, you’re not our problem.
David
At least he didn’t go in against a Sicilian with death on the line.
Cain
Ha, at least someone remembers Princess Bride (see my previous comment).
cain
Bubblegum Tate
Yes, but it results in freedom, democracy, democratic freedom, ponies, freedom, awesomeness, freedom, candy, freedom, rainbows, and, yes, freedom. Are you saying that all of those things aren’t worth fighting for? Huh? Are you? Freedom-hating moonbat.
Jake
What does Utah have to do with anything?
Buck
It baffles me how the greatest military might in the history of the world has been put in such dire straits by a country that does not even have a military.
Seems I remember back when we were bombing Yugoslavia that we were “almost out of bombs” or some such shit as that at one point.
I think this “we are broken and need more money and men” is a common theme.
Ed Drone
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
When will we ever learn, indeed?
Ed
Andrew
Butlerian Jihad Time!
The Other Steve
What I’m amazed at is we spend $600 billion, and our Navy is defeated by a group of $30,000 fishing boats in the Straights of Hormuz.
We need to start looking at bang for the buck in our purchasing decisions. Maybe instead of F-22 fighter jets, we ought to be making paper airplanes?
The Other Steve
And they control the spice!
Chuck Butcher
Considering this is a semi-official publication with pretty good access the analysis is pretty non-political. They give you the broad spectrum of the consequences of the Iraq/Afghanistan war. Sure you can say, “Duh,” but if you want to make whatever case regarding the wars you’ve been given ammunition.
BushCo made some really stupid neo-con decisions and naturally somebody else has had to pay. The next President as CiC will have to deal with what has been done to the military. Why not go through this article and ask candidates, “OK, so what do you propose to do?” I have a kid slated to go to Iraq with the OR Nat Guard and I’m “concerned.”
A year ago my neighbor who works for me got back from Iraq, a Nat Guard tanker deployed 2 1/2 years ago he hit the ground as an infantryman – a dismounted tanker – because…no M1A1s for them to use. Their tanks were deployed – used to fill other gaps. Saying he was displeased by this outcome is rather an understatement. After 12 years he’d fulfilled all his comittments and resigned/refused re-up on return.
This isn’t real new news, but then…
If you agree that going into Afghanistan was important you can probably draw up scenarios where this report makes for real concern. Yes, I’ve opposed this Iraq mess since BushCo started talking about it. (adamently and loudly opposed)
RodeoBob
Actually, it’s pretty obvious when you think about it. Imagine you’ve just got a nice, thick, New York steak. You’ve seasoned it, grilled it, and brought it to the dinner table. You’re ready to eat it, fork in one hand, 5 lb. meat cleaver in the other. It’s absoultely baffling how your 5 lb., stainless-steel marvel of kitchen engineering is so horribly inadequate to the task of cutting your steak into bite-sized pieces without harming the dinnerware it sits upon!
The training, demands, and challenges of an occupying (police) force are almost the complete opposite of the needs, difficulties, and preparation required of a combat-intervention force.
But hey! The Air Force can totally handle whatever we need. I mean, superior air power is what caused the Lebanese to cease their rocket attacks into Isreal and release the kidnaped soldiers, right? And that superior air power really knocked out all of Lebanon’s military power, so they couldn’t launch any more rockets into Isreal after the “war” either! I mean, that’s what happened according to Fox News!
Z
Cool! Hillary as Bene Gesserit.
Jake
What defeat? If I ignore a kid who is chanting nanny-nanny-boo-boo at me, that ain’t defeat. What’s amazing is the chi-cons & def-cons are screaming that a bunch of idiots doing the equivalent of shouting nanny-nanny-boo-boo posed a threat to a Navy convoy.
Punchy
those fuckers are SHARP if they hit you squarely in the eye. As long we can de-goggle them just prior to invasion, a fleet of P-8.5×11’s could reek havoc with their infantry.
Fe E
Did anyone else think Dune blew? And Herbert’s “ecology of Dune” was wrongheaded to the point of irritation. Saving up all the moisture on a desert planet and unleashing it at once will do what, now? Plus, a desert ecosytsem isn’t failed prairie–it’s just desert.
Not to metnion just desserts.
I tried to read the second dune book and just nahhhhhhhh.
However the dune movie was worth seeing just to catch Jean-Luc Picard as knife wielding lead guitarist, if nothing else!
Zifnab
For some reason that comparison really works for me.
Cold, calculating, and despised by the ignorant masses, but supremely confident and competent. Also, capable of folding time and space with their minds. Sounds like Hillary Clinton to a T.
Andrew
You’re thinking of guild navigators. They’re more of a Mike Gravel-type character, imo.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
If the U.S. were to face a new conventional threat, its military could not respond effectively without turning to air power, officials and analysts say.
“Facing a new conventional threat” in the same sense as “those nasty Poles attacking a German border station”. You spend more than half the world’s total armed forces budget – bugger me, the bloody LAPD could give the army of many countries a run for their money.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Do you do weddings and Bar Mitzvahs?
Jon H
“And don’t forget Blackwater. We still have Blackwater as ground troops.”
Heh. If Blackwater wants to take on the Iranians on the ground, that might solve one big, corrupt problem.
Jon H
Jake wrote: “What defeat? If I ignore a kid who is chanting nanny-nanny-boo-boo at me, that ain’t defeat.”
I believe there were some wargames a while back, where one of the participating officers, commanding the enemy forces in the Gulf, decided not to play by the established rules and posited an attack on our ships using small boats.
He sunk a bunch of our ships and basically won, quite quickly.
At which point he was told he couldn’t play like that, he had to play by the rules that let us win.
MFB
Yeah, tremble, Yankees! The Sandinistas are just a few hours’ drive from Texas!
For crying out loud, who’s going to attack America? You could nuke us, you know. Hell, you might nuke us even if we don’t attack you.
That’s why we’re all developing nukes. (Strictly for self-defense, of course. Just like yours.)
Jake
The Millennium Challenge 02. (I’d love to hear what Van Riper has to say about the current OMGing over Iran.) But ToS was referring to the terrible awful butt-hair curling aggressive scary confrontation last week.