The Great Migration of the American Military

One of the greatest migrations in military history is taking place as you read this. The great migration of the American military's two goals are simple, even if achieving them is anything but.

First is to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq from 97,000 to 50,000. Second is to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 to 100,000. Shuffling troops around war zones globally is really nothing new, as rotations have been part of the lives of soldiers and their families for centuries. But the magnitude and speed of this military migration have historical precedents set only in World War II.

The major problem with this great migration of the American military is that it is likely to end up being a great mistake on par with the invasion of Iraq, because it too is an invasion and by many indicators an equally unwarranted one at that. President Obama has been touting this massive movement of troops since the campaign trail. But there are two very big "buts."

He and his administration have failed to take into account new conditions on the ground and new positions of the U.S.'s closest allies in the Afghanistan war. Taking the second of these momentous mistakes first, it has become clear in the past few weeks that United Kingdom and Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, have been seeking to end military actions and start peacemaking work with the Taliban. Yet the Obama administration has clung obstinately on the troop increases, as the migration makes clear.

This fundamental shift on the part of the U.S.'s closest allies is both based on changing conditions on the ground, and is creating new conditions of their own. United Nation's Counter-Terrorism Chief Richard Barrett's assertion on Change.org's War and Peace blog that there are no military solutions to Afghanistan's problems is indicative, though incomplete.

The solutions Afghanistan needs are primarily socio-economic, generally required to be politically engineered to be viable. Which brings us back to the ongoing great migration of the American military, if only because it now indicates a lack of foresight that could be cured with a temporary self-infliction of nearsightedness. The current historic great migration of the American military is also a mistaken reallocation of resources of historic proportions.

Photo credit: The National Guard