Bush vs. the Force Providers Posted by Patrick Barry

For anyone who was paying attention last night, President Bush made a mildly controversial comment, which points to an important internal debate going on at the Pentagon.  While discussing the recent security gains in Iraq, Bush suggested that General Petraeus would be the ultimate arbiter over the pace of troop drawdowns:

“General Petraeus has warned that too fast a drawdown could result in the "disintegration of the Iraqi security forces, al Qaeda-Iraq regaining lost ground, [and] a marked increase in violence." Members of Congress: Having come so far and achieved so much, we must not allow this to happen.”

In one sense, this is all fine.  Petraeus, as the commander on the ground, is best equipped to assess Iraq’s security needs, and what role US forces will play in meeting them.  What Petraeus is not equipped to do however, and what President Bush did not mention at all, is the needs of the US Military, whose mission extends across the world.  As early as September, there were hints that force providers at the Pentagon differed from Petraeus on the issue of troop deployments.  Comments from Gates, Mullen, and Casey, as well as the reported views of Admiral Fallon, all suggest that situation is not so simple as the President’s comments indicate, a point that was most recently demonstrated by the Pentagon’s commissioning of an alternative assessment about the condition of the US military.   The concern informing this assessment is clear: Our soldiers are under great strain, and the strategic needs of the country are too many for all attention to be paid to Iraq.

The President’s unequivocal declaration that  Petraeus is the ‘decider’ for military matters in Iraq, given the existence of such a strong debate within the military establishment, not only sharply contradicts Military command structure, but it also obscures the nature of the challenges facing US forces in the 21st century.  Iraq has been a tremendous burden on our troops, and our occupation has substantially compromised our ability to deal with emerging threats.  While it may be right in a tactical sense to finish what we started in Iraq, there is a broader strategic imperative that warrants the President’s attention as well.  Secretary Gates will soon deliver an alternative assessment to the President; I hope he reads it. 

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Comments

[Zathras]

I suppose it is probably churlish of me to point out that DA posted within the last week a debate about Iraq that scarcely mentioned this point. President Bush is unfortunately far from alone in his focus on Iraq to the exclusion of all America's other responsibilities in the world, and the tolerance of many professed Bush critics for continuing to allow the commitment in Iraq to dominate the military's planning and procurement for years to come is but one symptom of this.

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