Health And Future Of The US Military (CNAS And FP)

The Center For New American Security and Foreign Policy Magazine have put together an article and an index on the state of the US military. You can see the article here and download the questions and answers here. The article and index are based on the answers 3400 active and retired officers gave to a series of questions about the health and readiness of the US military.

Some highlights include (Boldface and comments are mine):

Would you say that the U.S. military today is stronger, weaker, or about the same as it was five years ago?
25% Stronger
60% Weaker
15% About the same

“The demands of the war in Iraq have broken the U.S. military."
8% Strongly Agree
33% Somewhat Agree
23% Somewhat Disagree
33% Strongly Disagree
2% Don’t know

“The demands of the war in Iraq have stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin."
52% Strongly Agree
36% Somewhat Agree
7% Somewhat Disagree
3% Strongly Disagree
0.4% Don’t know

Which country do you feel has gained the greatest strategic advantage from the war in Iraq?
19% United States
37% Iran
3% Iraq
22% China
13% Russia
4% Other, please specify

How well informed do you believe the United States’ elected leaders are about the U.S. military today?
5% Very informed
27% Somewhat informed
33% Somewhat uninformed
33% Very uninformed
1% Don’t know

Below is a list of things that could potentially assist the U.S. military in winning the Global War on Terror. Please choose the TWO most important things you believe the United States government must do to win the war on terror.
31% More robust diplomatic tools
73% Improve intelligence (Comment: Interesting that this is the single highest rated item by quite a large margin)
21% Increase the size of U.S. ground forces
19% Increase the number of troops with foreign language skills
38% Further increase the size of Special Operations Forces
13% Develop a cadre of operational, deployable civilian experts
14% Increase spending on economic development assistance programs

Good News In Iraq... (Report To Congress)

The DOD issued its tenth quarterly report on "Measuring Security and Stability In Iraq" (Download the full text here). The news seems pretty good on this front. Highlights include:

• "There has been significant security progress, momentum in reconciliation at the local and provincial levels and economic progress. However substantial the security progress made since the last report, sustained and durable progress depends on further progress in attaining political and economic objectives."

• "The “tribal awakening” movement has grown as an increasing number of sheikhs—Sunni and Shi’a—have chosen to stop resisting the Coalition."

• "The number of security incidents has fallen significantly and is now at levels last seen in the summer of 2005. Although ethno-sectarian violence continues to be a concern, overall civilian casualties, enemy attacks and total improvised explosive device attacks have decreased markedly over the reporting period. For example, the number of high-profile attacks in Iraq declined by over 50% since March 2007."

• "While the GoI’s lack of progress on key legislation has been disappointing and has hindered “top-down” reconciliation, “bottom-up” reconciliation initiatives gained momentum as tribal and local outreach efforts expanded during this quarter."

• "The Iraqi economy continues to improve and overcome many challenges to stability and growth. Estimated nominal gross domestic product (GDP) is US$60.9 billion. Real GDP will increase by an estimated 6.3% in 2007 as growth in the non-oil sector continues. The inflation rate has continued to decline due to the Central Bank of Iraq’s tight monetary policy implemented through appreciation of the Iraqi dinar. Year-on-year headline inflation as of October 2007 is 20.4%, which is down from 52.8% one year ago and year-to-date inflation is 4.2%."

• "The key to long-term success will be the GoI’s ability to capitalize upon local gains, pass key legislation and promote national reconciliation."

The report contains a number of useful charts and graphs like the one below that indicates that the perception among Iraqis of the level of insecurity in the country is worse than the reality: