Why is congress launching yet another roles-and-missions probe?

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: DEFENSE WATCH

Helpless to accomplish any meaningful change in the direction of the war, lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee have decided that it's now a good time to review and reappraise the roles and missions of the military services.

Congress may have the power of the purse. But it has been largely powerless in just about every attempt to influence the course of the war in Iraq and to substantially reshape military spending priorities.

The frustration is palpable, especially among the Democratic members of the defense committees that oversee the Pentagon. These lawmakers are generally pro-military, but have turned increasingly angrier at what they believe is a hopeless mission in Iraq.

While Congress is engaged in contentious battles with the Bush administration over the Defense Department's 2008 budget and Gen. David Petraeus' report, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and ranking member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., will be joined by other lawmakers in taking yet another stab at investigating what the military services should be doing, and whether they are properly organized to do their jobs.

It is hard to see how a roles-and-missions investigation makes any sense in the context of current events. But it does fit squarely into a

predictable pattern of partisan bickering that everyone knows will not result in any consequential policy change.

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"Congressional Democrats' constant interrogations of Bush administration officials represent just the latest round in an ongoing inter-party struggle to control the machinery of war," University of Chicago professors William G. Howell and Jon C. Pevehouse wrote in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.

Skelton, himself, acknowledged that the roles and missions of the military services, while not totally unchangeable, are deeply rooted. "The basic structure of the Defense Department and the division of labor between the military services has not dramatically changed since the late 1940s," he said in a statement as he announced the creation of the panel in late July. Skelton also hinted at the pent-up exasperation caused by lawmakers' inability to exert clout. "Ensuring that the military services are working on the appropriate roles and missions is key to our national security and Congress has an important role to play in this effort."

At this early stage, the specific goals of the roles-and-missions panel seem imprecise. It could attempt to consolidate...