Fraters Libertas

Stretched Too Thin?

I'm a bit surprised that more has not been made of this Army War College study by Dr. Jeffrey Record, that questions whether the war with Iraq was necessary. It also examines the impact that war in Iraq has had on the broader war against terrorists, in particular Al Qaeda, and whether U.S. forces are being stretched too thin.

Phil Carter at Intel Dump and Mark Lewis at Acquire, Identify, Engage have commented on it, but it doesn't seem to be creating much of a buzz otherwise.

I have not had a chance to read it yet myself, but whether you agree with the conclusions or not, the study seems to raise very legitimate questions that deserve to be discussed.

UPDATE: I just finished reading the entire "study" which could be more accurately described as a very, very long editorial with footnotes. When you start seeing the label "neocon" tossed around you know the author has an axe or two to grind.

Reader James Phillips e-mails with more on Dr. Jeffrey Record:

Dr. Jeffrey Record, the author of the Army War College/SSI study has a book coming out in April 2004: Dark Victory: America's Second War Against Iraq.

The Amazon.com editorial review states:

"Record faults the administration for preventive, unilateralist policies that alienated friends and allies, weakened international institutions important to the United States, and saddled America with costly, open-ended occupation of an Arab heartland. He contends that far from being a major victory against terrorism, the war provided Islamic jihadists an expanded recruiting base and a new front of operations against Americans. Such a solid, thought-provoking study merits attention."

Uh, noooo. Such a "solid, thought-provoking study" is already dated. Frankly, anyone who continues to refer to "unilateralist policies" should not be given any credibility.

Record is a former Democrat staffer for Senators Nunn and Lloyd Benson. He has also been (or is, I do not know) associated with the Brookings and Hudson Institutes. Sometime back then, there were some stories going around about the civilian faculty at the military universities being very similar in temperament to their colleagues in the "civilian" universities.