The Toothless Lion

The lion is called “King of the Jungle” partly because of its regal appearance but mostly because if you poke him, you will be eaten. It is indeed very dangerous to mess with a healthy lion.

Following WWII, America has been seen as a militarily strong nation – the lion in the jungle, if you will. Until WWII, our military experienced sharp drawn-downs in the aftermath of military action. Conscription was the primary means to build up enough manpower to wage a war. When confrontations were realized, soldiers often found themselves not armed with sufficient modern weapons or even trained in tactics applicable to the situation. Following the Revolutionary war, there was heated debate on whether there should even be a standing army.

Until the end of the Vietnam war, we always seemed to be fighting a current war with the past war equipment and tactics. Today, warfare has evolved to be a very complex matter involving high-tech and expensive weapons, situation and environment specific tactics, and intense situation specific training. We no longer stand rank-and-file in front of each other on a battlefield and charge in a conflict where the outcome is more a matter of attrition than tactics (also known as linear warfare). Today we have un-manned drones that make surgical strikes to take out individual targets and bunker-busting guided bombs.

Unfortunately, the one constant in our military strength remains politics. In our country, the “Hawks” believe we should have a strong, well trained and equipped military at all times, while the “Doves” would rather eliminate the military or reduce it to a part-time national guard force with minimal weapons.

Bill Clinton drew down the military and closed bases. Some of this action may have made sense at the time, but may also have been shortsighted on his part in light of what transpired in the aftermath of 9/11. The reality, however, is that we could not have fought a war in Afghanistan with the weapons and tactics used in Vietnam.

Despite the initial quick success with airpower in removing the Taliban and Al Qaida fighters, along with their administration, from Afghanistan, we eventually had to put “boots on the ground” in an attempt to keep them out. This presented yet another challenge. The full-time forces had been drawn down to inadequate numbers. A decision had to be made to either re-institute the draft or use Reserve and National Guard troops. Suddenly, Guard troops were no longer guaranteed a worst-case scenario of working in times of national disasters and riots. Dentists, lawyers, and grocery clerks were now outfitted with loaded weapons and sent half a world away to fight a war in repeated deployments. They were no longer “weekend warriors”.

Somewhere deep in the Pentagon there is a group of war-wise military leaders that is supposed to be able to predict where and how the next war or wars will be fought. Since there are always dozens of armed conflicts going on at any time, I’m pretty sure they aren’t saying we won’t be involved. Why, then has Obama’s Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to draw down the military to pre-WWII levels?

North Korea has over a million men in a standing army, and more than eight million reserves. China has some 2.25 million people under arms and another 7.5 million in reserve. Even Iran keeps some 500, 000 troops active and can muster an additional 2 million for duty. Hagel wants to put our active troop level at 440,000.

Granted, we no longer line up across from each other and fire weapons until the last man standing wins. But our secDef also wants to scrap perfectly good and serviceable weapons systems and not fund new or replacement weapons.

One of the targets for elimination is the venerable A-10 aka. The Warthog. This weapon system – calling it an airplane is like calling Niagara Falls a faucet leak – is literally a cannon with an airframe built around it. Originally intended for use in the steep river gorges of Vietnam where other jets flew too fast to make effective surgical strikes, it proved invaluable in both Iraq wars as a highly successful tank killer.

Today, soldiers on the ground are equipped with the M4 rifle. This is a re-hashed version of the Vietnam-era M16. Troops have been reduced to – at their own expense – buying aftermarket parts to make the rifle work reliably. Of course, the weapon of choice for our enemies and potential enemies is the low-cost ultra-reliable AK47. It too dates to the Vietnam-era but has been proven to be reliable under almost any adverse condition – dirt, mud, ice, or underwater. While there are currently many far better weapons than the M4 available, the search for a replacement has been scrapped.

I cannot dispute that there could be better oversight of spending by the Armed Services, and old-boy networks, nepotism, and outright corruption probably still exist in military procurement. We can’t afford to emasculate our military might. A toothless lion is vulnerable to attacks from smaller and much weaker creatures. It will eventually die of starvation or be consumed by hyenas.