Say Anything Blog

This Pentagon report has been getting a significant amount of attention in the media.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon.

Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon's decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by a realization that the Army was overextended.

The idea that our military is being "worn out" by their mission in Iraq is certainly one worthy of attention and study, but I'm not sure things are nearly as bad as they're being made to seem by the media.

For one thing, while new enlistment rates are down for the military re-enlistment rates have been exceeding goals. Soldiers signing up for additional tours of duty after they have already completed the required amount of service is hardly an indication of a dispirited or broken force.

For another, the article mentions that our military will not be able to sustain deployments to Iraq long enough to "break the back" of the insurgency. It has often been suggested by myself and others on this blog that defeating the insurgency has never really been the primary goal in Iraq. At least not an outright military defeat, anyway. Rather, the goal has always been to leave Iraq with a democratic government capable of defending itself from the insurgency. Once that goal has been completed the vast majority of our troops will be able to come home.

Indeed, some of our troops are already coming home thanks to the improvement in Iraqi security forces.

So while Mr. Krepinevich's report makes some excellent points it can hardly be concluded that our military is "broken," which is a conclusion many in the media and on the left will try to make with this report as evidence.