WASHINGTON — The U.S. military lacks sufficient personnel to meet the nation's current war and peacekeeping demands throughout the world in coming years, despite steps being taken by the Army to stretch its ranks and increase the number of soldiers available for combat, according to a Pentagon advisory board.
The report by the Defense Science Board, a panel of outside advisors to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, argues that "inadequate total numbers" of troops mean the United States can "not sustain our current and projected global stabilization commitments." Army initiatives to create more combat brigades out of its 10 active divisions are "important, but partial, steps toward enhanced stabilization operations," the panel said.
The report offers several options for easing the burdens on a military strained by missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among them are adding substantial numbers of troops and scaling back the number of peacekeeping missions. The board did not specify troop numbers.
The findings surfaced last week when Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) cited the report during a congressional hearing and questioned Rumsfeld about it. Rumsfeld called it an "excellent piece of work" but said the panel probably had not been briefed on the Army's plans to squeeze more out of existing forces before reaching its conclusions.
Rumsfeld has argued that the military has enough troops and that initiatives underway at the Pentagon will create more front-line combat forces. A key change at the Army is creating additional deployable combat brigades, in part by eliminating headquarters staff, a process known as "modularity."
"I don't know if they were briefed on ... all the things we're doing in the department. I doubt it," Rumsfeld said last week, dismissing the criticism implied by the findings.
However, a copy of the panel's findings obtained by the Los Angeles Times indicated that the advisory group did account for the modularity plans. The panel found the plans insufficient to deal with the burdens that combat and peacekeeping missions are placing on the military.
"Modularity, in and of itself, does not ensure an effective stabilization capability," the report concludes.
A Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday that while Rumsfeld appreciated that the board undertook the study, he did not accept its conclusion that the U.S. military was too small to handle its global responsibilities.
