It has to be one of the most stunning statements ever uttered in public by an American Defense Secretary: last week in a speech at West Point, Robert Gates, who served as Secretary of Defense to both President Bush and President Obama, and whose service has won him widespread respect, offered this view: “”In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” Gates was talking about the future, but the implication is clear: the war in Iraq, and the long, seemingly unwinnable war in Afghanistan, have simply not been worth the effort.
As of June 1, 2010, the combined cost of these wars, as calculated by the National Priorities Project, has exceeded a trillion dollars (the organization says the Iraq War has had an estimated cost of $725 billion, and the Afghanistan War has had an estimated cost of $275 billion.) The principle reason we are in Afghanistan at this moment–and there is no escaping this–is so that no one can accuse President Obama of losing Afghanistan to the Taliban after we leave. We should have our heads examined.
Amid all this reckless and often ill-reasoned attacks on government spending, someone needs to take a good, hard look at the military. In Gates’ speech, he speaks of a number of useful reforms–less armor and ground forces, a greater role for the Navy and Air Force. But evolving our forces is one challenge; a harder, but perhaps even more essential task, is to simply ask, what are getting for this military? Are we thwarting terrorists? Deterring Chinese adventurism? Dysfunctionally protecting access to an outdated and highly-polluting energy source? Seriously, what are getting for our money? Before we start laying off schoolteachers, somebody should look at the number of nukes we’re maintaining, and see if they’re all necessary.