The U.S. Army Is Stretched On Four Continents

U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno (L) speaks during a meeting with Fang Fenghui (not pictured), Chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, at Bayi Building in Beijing February 21, 2014. REUTERS/Lintao Zhang/Pool

Army Scrambles On 4 Continents: Odierno Previews New Doctrine -- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense

WASHINGTON: The Mideast may have the spotlight right now, but it’s not the only area that has the Army of Chief of Staff worried. In an uncanny parallel to the 1990s, the end of a large-scale ground deployment — in Europe then, in Iraq and Afghanistan now – has led to steep Army budget cuts even as multiple new missions, smaller but demanding, pop up all around the world. With new threats arising and complexity increasing as funding declines, Gen. Ray Odierno said, a new “Army Operating Concept” will help reorient the service for the post-Afghanistan era.

Not that we’re in the post-Afghanistan era yet, given the continuing advisor mission there. The stress of the accumulated stresses, old and new, is already starting to show. “I have two division headquarters in Afghanistan. I have a division headquarters in Korea, [and] I’m going to send another division headquarters to Iraq,” Odierno ticked off this morning at a Defense Writers Group breakfast. “I’m going to send a division headquarters to Africa to work the response to the Ebola virus. I might end up sending a division headquarters to Europe.”

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My Comment: Army of Chief of Staff Odierno's pleas for more money have gone unheeded .... so we are where we are today.