George W. Bush’s 2000 election campaign promise to the military was “help is on the way.” But a prickly White House-Pentagon relationship and a war in which the civilian leadership too often has meddled with war-fighting opera¬tions has injured the promise. For the 44th president, there is the challenge of restoring the civil-military balance, invigorating a force brought perilously close to exhaustion, and almost certainly crafting an Iraq exit strategy.
Examining the next commander in chief’s priority tasks, retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor makes the case for devising a new national military strategy supported by a fresh approach to civil-military relations.
Robert Killebrew, also a retired Army colonel, says the Army and Marine Corps should be reorganized to support a national strategy that emphasizes support and assistance rather than pre-emption and invasion, and that fully harnesses State Department capabilities.
Seth Cropsey warns that a reckless abandonment of Iraq could haunt the next president even more than the Iraq invasion will sear W’s legacy.
And David Katz, a former Green Beret, rounds out with a post-surge proposal that would create a popular National Guard-style force in Iraq.
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