Analysts: Air power necessary if new threat arises

[unhappycamper]

Analysts: Air power necessary if new threat arises
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 14, 2008 5:58:25 EST

If the U.S. were to face a new conventional threat, its military could not respond effectively without turning to air power, officials and analysts say.

That is the ultimate upshot of the war in Iraq: a response elsewhere would consist largely of U.S. fighters and bombers — even, perhaps, some degree of nuclear strike — because so many ground troops are tied up in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

And that leaves at least some senior U.S. leaders and analysts crossing their fingers.

“I believe that we, as a nation, are at risk of mission failure should our Army be called to deploy to an emerging threat,” Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee, said last year, basing his assessment on classified Army readiness reports.

“Iraq is sort of sucking all the oxygen out of the room,” said Tammy Schultz, who studies ground forces for the Center for a New American Security, a relatively new Washington think tank dedicated to “strong, pragmatic and principled” security and defense policies.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/01/marine_stretched_080113w/



uhc comment: Meet the Center for a New American Security:

http://www.cnas.org/en/cms/?32

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The Honorable Dr. William J. Perry, Chairman of the Board
Professor and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace
Stanford University

The Honorable Dr. Madeleine K. Albright
Principal, The Albright Group LLC

The Honorable Richard L. Armitage
President, Armitage International

Norman R. Augustine
Former Chairman, Executive Committee, Lockheed Martin Corporation

Admiral Dennis C. Blair, USN (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command

The Honorable Dr. Richard J. Danzig
Sam Nunn Prize Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies

The Honorable William J. Lynn
Senior Vice President, Government Operations & Strategy, Raytheon Company

The Honorable Dr. Leo S. Mackay, Jr.
Vice President, Corporate Business Development, Lockheed Martin Corporation

LtGen Greg S. Newbold, USMC (Ret.)
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John D. Podesta
President and CEO, Center for American Progress

Dr. Mitchell Reiss
Vice Provost for International Affairs, College of William & Mary





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National Security Network

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Vice President for International Governmental Affairs, Ford Motor Company

Dr. Hans Binnendijk
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Dr. Ashton Carter
Ford Foundation Professor of Science and International Affairs, Harvard University

Dr. Peter Feaver
Alexander F. Hehmeyer Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Duke University

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WCG & Associates International, LLC

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