There is still no willingness to comprehend or, at least, admit the truth: America's current national security posture is fiscally unsustainable. Today, the United States' national debt is so large it will swallow almost any legislation the President and Congress agree to pass. It is only a question of time before the U.S. government is compelled to make drastic cuts in federal spending.
Despite this reality, like the politicians in both parties, the four Chiefs of Service are desperate to save the military status quo from significant reductions in defense spending, a policy that could lead to a serious degradation of American military power after the 2012 election. In the midst of America's fiscal crisis, Congress is equally inept. The best Congress could do in this legislative season was to announce its intention to add yet another four-star (this time from the National Guard) to the Joint Chiefs of Staff; an action comparable to adding a fifth wheel to a car that's already got four flats.
America's ignominious withdrawal from Iraq should help sober up politicians of all stripes. It should impart the timeless strategic lesson that the use of American military power, even against weak opponents with no navy, no army, no air force and no air defenses, can have costly, unintended strategic consequences. Today, Iran, not the United States, is the dominant power inside Iraq and Americans are beginning to understand why.
Iranian interests prevailed in Baghdad because Tehran's agents of influence wore an indigenous face while America's agents wore foreign uniforms and carried guns. Whatever the US decides to do, Iran will remain the dominant actor in Iraq as long as it maintains the thinnest veil of concealment behind the Maliki government or its successors.
While these unassailable facts are ignored inside the Beltway, "Main Street" is figuring things out. According to a recent CBS poll 77% of the American electorate approves of President Obama's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. Two in three Americans say the Iraq war was not worth the cost, and only 15% of Americans support military intervention to stop Iran's nuclear program.
More important, nearly one-half of American voters now think the United States can make major cuts in defense spending without placing the country in danger. They see no risk in cutting way back on what America spends to defend other countries. The old notion that the United States should maintain expensive military bases in foreign countries, just to ensure troublesome foreigners do not get "out of hand", is rapidly losing support.
Americans are signing up for President Eisenhower's philosophy in the aftermath of the Korean War. He insisted the nation deserved both "solvency and security" in national defense. Like Eisenhower, Americans seem to understand the nation's vital strategic interests are only secure when the United States' scientific-industrial base is productive and our society prospers.
American voters seem to understand what many of the men running for President do not: Given America's fragile economic health, 2012 is no time for uninformed decisions regarding the use of force. The deficit Americans worry most about is not fiscal; it's a national deficit of integrity and reason.
retired Col. Douglas Macgregor (he can say shit like this because he's retired).
