Miami Herald
March 30, 2003
Military Worry: Are We Spread Too Thin?
By Tom Infield, Knight Ridder News Service
WASHINGTON - With another 120,000 troops being ordered to the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military may not have enough soldiers, tanks, warplanes and ships left to deal
with a major emergency elsewhere, military leaders say.
Sixty percent of the Marine Corps' power is already deployed overseas, mostly in Iraq. Half of the Navy's aircraft carrier battle groups and the bulk of the Air Force's
B-1 and B-2 heavy bombers are engaged in the war. Four of 10 15,000-person Army divisions are in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, and elements of three other
divisions are en route to the Persian Gulf.
One Army division is permanently stationed in Korea, but it's not enough to hold off North Korea's million-man army, backed by thousands of artillery pieces that can
fire chemical weapons. That leaves just two divisions in reserve, one in Hawaii and the other, still refitting after duty in Afghanistan, in upstate New York.
Leaders Confident
Leaders of the armed services say they have no doubt that the United States could meet another threat, or even several threats, in other parts of the world, including the
Korean peninsula.
But with commitments in Colombia, a global war on terrorism and peacekeeping duties in Bosnia and Kosovo, some military leaders have begun to worry how far -- and
for how long -- their resources can be stretched.
The 240,000 American military personnel in the gulf region could be joined by tens of thousands of others over weeks or months. The eventual total is unknown outside
of the war planners' offices, but some of the new arrivals will relieve those who have been on the front lines.
The total will certainly be fewer than the 500,000 troops that served in the first Gulf War in 1991. But the Iraq war's impact could be much greater. America's armed
forces are much smaller than they were a dozen years ago, but military commitments are greater.
The Army had 18 divisions and 706,000 men and women at the time of the first Gulf War. Now it has 10 divisions and 476,000 people. The Navy had 580 ships then;
now it has 306. The Air Force, which had 165 air wings in 1991, now has 91.
Former President Bill Clinton, along with Congress, cut forces in anticipation of a ''peace dividend'' that would come with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of
the Cold War.
Sept. 11 Change
Until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration favored continued downsizing of the Army, and especially of its heavy armored and mechanized divisions,
while wanting to rely more on Special Forces, high-tech weaponry and air power.
The administration still favors what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has called ''lighter, faster, more agile forces,'' not more troops. Rumsfeld, in fact, has been
openly criticized by some active duty and retired military commanders in recent days for underestimating Iraqi opposition, betting too heavily on precision-guided bombs
and not sending enough ground troops, armor and artillery to the region.
Even before the start of the war in Iraq, some top military leaders were warning that the downsized force was becoming overextended.
Testifying before a House of Representatives subcommittee, Adm. William J. Fallon, the vice chief of naval operations, said ``today's surge [in deployments] has put a
significant strain on every Navy resource.''
Days before Fallon's testimony, Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Brown, the service's personnel chief, went before the Senate Armed Services Committee to address what
he called a ''crisis'' in manpower, including the frequent and prolonged mobilizations of Air Force reservists and Air National Guard members.
He said that with the stepped up air patrols over the United States and the war on terrorists abroad, ``we are stressed by the challenges.''
Although it has lobbied for a bigger role in U.S. war plans -- and gotten one in Iraq -- the Marine Corps is stretched thin, too.
99,000 Outside U.S.
Of 175,000 active-duty Marines and 19,000 reservists, 99,000 are deployed outside the United States, from the Middle East to Afghanistan to Okinawa to the former
Soviet republic of Georgia. This includes 64,000 in Iraq and Kuwait.
If a new war began somewhere else, American ground forces would have to come overwhelmingly from the Army.
''We conceivably could help out in another theater,'' a Marine official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ``But the Marine Corps, primarily, is a one-theater force.''
Most of the Army is tied down, too, however. Units from seven of the 10 regular Army divisions already are in the gulf region or have orders to head there.
Only the 25th Infantry Division, in Hawaii, and the 10th Mountain Division, which has returned to upstate New York from Afghanistan, are entirely on U.S. soil. The 2nd
Division is permanently assigned to South Korea.
The 3rd Infantry Division, from Fort Stewart, Ga., is leading the battle in Iraq, along with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the 101st Airborne Division from Fort
Campbell, Ky. And the 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Italy, has opened a second front in northern Iraq.
The 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., has joined the battle against Iraqi guerrillas near Nassiriyah, and other elements of the division are trying to root out
terrorists in Afghanistan.
Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, are on airplanes to the gulf.
Or if you like, fill in the gear of your choice.
) is that at least one of the planners actually read a copy of Achtung - Panzer!. Lord knows the whining about (truly piddling, ineffective) "rear area security" threats sounds suspiciously like the whining that Guderian had to put up with in 1940...