Too Many Wars With Too Few Soldiers (Commentary)

Afghan commandos conduct a two-day presence patrol in Sar-e Takht village in Afghanistan's Farah province, Feb. 27, 2012. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Kyle McNally

Too Many Wars, Too Few U.S. Soldiers -- Robert H. Scales, Washington Post

Robert H. Scales, a retired U.S. Army major general and former commandant of the Army War College, is president of the consulting firm Colgen.

I guess I knew it would eventually come down to this: Blame the Army’s institutions in some way for the horrific and senseless slaughter of 16 innocent Afghan civilians in Kandahar, allegedly by a U.S. infantry non-commissioned officer (NCO). In their search for a villain, the media seems to be focusing now on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, where the accused soldier was stationed before his fourth deployment to a combat zone.

Before we get too involved in attacking institutions, perhaps it might be right and proper to suggest that the underlying issue here is not about failure of our Army. Perhaps the issue might be that no institutional effort can make up for trying over the past 10 years to fight too many wars with too few soldiers?

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My Comment: A General with 40 years experience of fighting wars sums it up perfectly in this post on what is happening in today's U.S. military.