8-23-06, 7:24 a.m.
In early August, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged at a news conference in the Pentagon that the US military has reported a shortage of equipment and a declining capacity of combat readiness after a prolonged war engagement. Recently, some US military personnel and members of the Congress have voiced their dissatisfaction with the heavy losses of the war.
US Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker said the present depletion rate of the army's equipment is four times more as originally envisaged. The military was obliged to 'broaden sources of income and reduce expenditure'. One the one hand, they've actively prompted the Congress to increase the budget by another $17 billion as emergency appropriations and; on the other, they've decided to cut down non-war spending, for instance, canceling non-essential business trips, suspending the recruitment of non-military staffers, and even dismissing some temporarily contracted civilian staffers. Some US defense and diplomatic experts also noted that due to equipment shortages and other related problems, nearly two-thirds of the active forces including the US Army and Marine Corps cannot plunge themselves in battles immediately once a war breaks out. A prestigious, marine-turned Congressman John Murtha said the United States is, in fact, unable to fight another war at all in such circumstances.
On July 31, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and the United States-led allied forces held a handover ceremony in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. The former took over security matters in six provinces in southern Afghanistan and hence officially got involved and controlled the military operation in the Afghan southern region. After the outbreak of the war in Afghanistan, the allied forces and the International Security Assistance Forces stationed in Afghanistan have a general division of work: the allied forces are mainly in charge of war on terror, military operation and other security affairs, such as military actions to uproot Taliban and other armed personnel. International Security Assistance Force is held accountable primarily for the 'peacekeeping' mission, with its scope of activities confined mainly to Kabul and other major cities and regions and generally is not directly involved in fighting. By November of this year, NATO will take over all security affairs in Afghanistan, according to the agreement reached by both sides. The US military, despite retaining an anti-terrorism force in Afghanistan, which is not subjected to the command of NATO, has begun 'getting away' from Afghanistan to some extent.
It seems that the US armed forces, the world's top military power, have also been seen as weak and frail in their performance as the US dollars recently.
In the wake of the '9/11' incident in 2001, the United States has launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of 'anti-terrorism'. It sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to overseas battlefields and input a huge amount of money beyond the capacities of any other countries. Although large-scale warfare in Iraq has ended, regional fighting and conflicts continue. The loss of US military personnel and the depletion of military equipment have far exceeded their expectations, engulfing pack after pack of US dollars into bottomless holes. According to the estimation, the United States' military spending in the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq is expected to top the $450 billion mark this year.
Compared with the competence of soldiers recruited in the past, the quality of the US soldiers has also slid because of lowered quality set for the recruitment. There is nothing new for the frequent occurrence of vicious cases in which US officers and soldiers are charged of committing rape and indiscriminate killing in addition to the deflated morale. These factors have, to some extent, negatively affected the US combat capability.
What trend to draw people's attention today is that the US military and political authorities are now working actively to implement a redeployment plan on a global scale. It plans to build a so-called 'three-tier base system' overseas from 2006 to 2011. The Pentagon said bluntly this system can save a lot of money than any other setups of the past, and it will enable the United States to have a more flexible and effective control of the entire world. Although the US military shows its weakness for the time being, it does not seem to abandon its military presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and other strategically vital places, let alone giving up its set hegemony strategies.
