Reducing Our Force Committments

Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Peter Chiarelli told lawmakers this last week that increased demands on our troops and numerous committments around the world have created an Army that "remains out of balance."

This is hardly surprising. We have been over stretched for decades now, and the problems have only intensified since the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan started. The answer, however, is not more troops through increased recruiting, etc., but a radical reworking of what we expect them to do. We should withdraw all of our forces from outposts of the Cold War and World War II (Germany, Japan, South Korea) and from our recent ventures (Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia). We would have no problem defending the homeland with our current levels, and this is what we should be aiming for, not exercises in nation-building and liberal interventionism.