Never fight a land war in Asia.

AuthorAbrahamson, James L.

Facing uncertainty regarding American policy in response to the present turmoil in major parts of North Africa and the Middle East, Dr. Friedman, a highly regarded strategic analyst and international intelligence expert, elaborates a point recently made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates: "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." Asserting that the post-World War II U.S. land wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq had less than "ideal outcomes," Friedman provides arguable historical support for Gates' claim.

He does not stop there, however, and goes on to explain why those four land wars represent support for Gates' proposition-then, now, and in the future. Waging war in any of the three specified areas involves the expense of sustaining powerful forces seeking to control large areas and populations at a great distance from their U.S. base. Though American forces can gain tactical victories, their opponents control the pace of the conflict and can decline combat until their conditions improve.

Nor can the U.S., which has global responsibilities that require maintenance of a strategic reserve, employ all its forces in any single theater of war. Should an incursion result in an insurgency, the U.S. forces might find their numbers insufficient to defeat the enemy and subjugate his population-evidence of having been assigned an inappropriate mission. Rather than rely on armed force to secure American interests, Friedman encourages reliance on diplomacy.

Those are all valid points, but hardly sufficient to justify Secretary Gates'-or Friedman's-bold assertion. Past U.S. diplomatic efforts at the United Nations as regards Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans (and now Libya?) failed to eliminate the need to use force to secure U.S. interests. Without lasting success...

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