Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 6/5/2007
Fighting on Borrowed Time: The effect on US military readiness of America’s post-9/11 wars
September 2006
Project on Defense Alternatives
Abstract
Considerable controversy surrounds the effects of America’s post-9/11 wars on its armed forces – more specifically, their effects on military readiness. And there are grounds enough for concern in the August 2006 admission by General Peter Pace, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, that two-thirds of the US Army’s active and reserve combat brigades registered in the two lowest readiness categories.
The controversy would be less acute if there were a supportive national consensus on the necessity of America’s most demanding post-9/11 operation: Iraqi Freedom. When viewed as a “war of choice”, however, issues of cost come to the fore. Among those costs, war-related decreases in military readiness are a type that is measured in increased risk. In other words: it is a cost with direct implications for national security. This gives it a unique political salience. It poses neither a “guns versus butter” nor a “war versus peace” choice, but rather a “war versus future security” one. Of course, even in “wars of necessity” that enjoy consensus support, it is important to keep account of costs – lest these capsize or bankrupt the effort before the fight is won.
