U.S. military won’t be able to quickly and fully respond to yet another crisis

Gen. Pace: Military capability eroding

The assessment, done by
the nation’s top military officer, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, represents a worsening from a year ago, when
that risk was rated as moderate.

The report
is classified, but on Monday senior defense officials, speaking on
condition on anonymity, confirmed the decline in overall military
readiness. And a report that accompanied Pace’s review concluded that
while the Pentagon is working to improve its warfighting abilities, it
“may take several years to reduce risk to acceptable levels.”

Pace’s
report comes as the U.S. is increasing its forces in Iraq to quell
escalating violence in Baghdad. And top military officials have
consistently acknowledged that the repeated and lengthy deployments are
straining the Army, Marine Corps and reserve forces and taking a heavy
toll on critical warfighting equipment.

The
review grades the military’s ability to meet the demands of the
nation’s military strategy — which would include fighting the
wars as well as being able to respond to any potential outbreaks in
places such as North Korea, Iran, Lebanon, Cuba or China.

The
latest review by Pace covers the military’s status during 2006, but the
readiness level has seesawed back and forth during the Iraq war.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the risk levels
are classified, said the risk for 2005 was moderate, but it was
assessed as significant in 2004.

His
assessment was submitted to Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the
beginning of this year, and therefore does not reflect the latest move
to pour 21,500 more troops into Iraq over the next few months.

Gates
delivered Pace’s assessment to Congress, along with a six-page report
on steps the Pentagon is taking to address the problem —
including new efforts to increase the size of the Army and Marine
Corps, and requests for more money to repair and replace equipment. On
Monday, the Pentagon released most of Gates’ report, except for a few
sections that were classified as secret.

That
report concluded that “world events and regional trends add up to
increased challenges to our nation’s security.” And it said the decline
in readiness is also affected by whether other federal agencies and
other nations are fulfilling their commitments.

There
have been long-standing complaints that the State Department has not
met its responsibilities in Iraq, particularly in reconstruction and
rebuilding efforts, as well as buttressing the political development of
the Iraqi government.

In his report, Gates
also discussed efforts to repair and replace equipment worn out in
combat, beef up recruiting and retention, and make better use of the
National Guard and reserve forces. It also details how the Pentagon
will use billions of dollars in the proposed budget, including plans to
modernize aircraft and weapons, develop better detection and
countermeasures for weapons of mass destruction, increase the size of
the special operations forces, and boost the nation’s missile defense.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press