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| MILITARY READINESS | |
 September 14, 2000  |
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Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush charges that the U.S. military declined during the Clinton/Gore administration. After this background report, experts from the Bush and Gore campaigns and independent observers debate Bush's claims.
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| Military readiness as a campaign issue | ||||||||||||||||||||
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MARGARET WARNER: From the night George W. Bush made that charge at the Republican convention, the question of whether American military forces are ready to fight has emerged as a top campaign issue. Several times in the past six weeks, Bush has said that military readiness, a key indication of military strength, has slipped during the Clinton years. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Two weeks ago in this very city, I said what I'm going to say again. The current administration inherited a military ready for the dangers and challenges facing our nation. The next president will inherit a military in decline. As a percentage of the GNP, our investment in national security is at the lowest level since World War II. Overall in the armed services, commitments around the world have tripled, while our forces have been reduced by 40 percent. MARGARET WARNER: Al Gore has responded by defending his administration's record.
MARGARET WARNER: "Readiness" refers to the armed forces ability to wage war now, if called upon to do so. It's measured by factors like how much combat training soldiers are receiving, the condition of weapons and availability of spare parts, the forces' ability to transport troops wherever they're needed, and such staffing barometers as the number of new recruits, how many service members re-enlist when their terms expire, whether units are operating at full strength, and perhaps hardest of all to gauge, the morale of the troops.
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| A different kind of mission | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Still, U.S. military planning has been based on the expectation that U.S. forces are ready to fight two major regional wars at nearly the same time-- in Korea and the Gulf, for example. But U.S. troops haven't seen that kind of combat. Instead they've been deployed to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in places like Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, as well as patrolling the no-fly zones over Iraq.
GEN. HENRY SHELTON: I can report we remain fully capable of conducting operations across the spectrum of conflict. We are fundamentally healthy. MARGARET WARNER: But seven months later, the military top brass was back on Capitol Hill, and saying they did, in fact, have a readiness problem.
MARGARET WARNER: In response, early last year the Clinton administration proposed increasing military spending by $112 billion over six years, a roughly 7 percent increase.
MARGARET WARNER: The Pentagon's most recent quarterly readiness report to Congress, covering April to June of this year, said "Thanks to increased funding, the overall readiness of our forces is improving." But the report said there were still "force readiness and capabilities shortfalls that increased risk in executing operations, if called upon to fight two major wars at once." |
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GOV.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Our military is low on parts, pay and morale. If called
on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the army
would have to report "not ready for duty, sir." 
VICE
PRESIDENT AL GORE: Our navy has more than twice as many surface ships
than China, more than three times as many as Russia. And our Air Force
is by far the largest and most modern in the entire world. If anyone
doubts our strength, let them talk to our pilots patrolling the skies
over Iraq right now. Let them meet the sailors who have kept the peace
in the Taiwan Strait. And let them remember our overwhelming victory
in Kosovo, without a single American life lost in battle. Our military
is the strongest and the best in the entire world. (Applause) If you
entrust me with the presidency, I pledge to keep it that way. 
The
U.S. armed forces have been sharply cut back since the Cold War ended.
The total number of uniformed personnel fell from 2.2 million in 1989
to 1.4 million today. During that time, military spending declined from
$392 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars to $292 billion this year.
Signs
that America's military was being strained by these operations started
in 1993. Over the years, anecdotal stories accumulated in the trade
press about shortfalls in training funds, lack of spare parts, and highly
trained pilots deciding not to re-enlist. Still, as recently as early
1998, the Clinton administration and senior military leaders insisted
there wasn't a problem. 
GEN.
HENRY SHELTON: Our forces are showing increasing signs of serious wear.
Anecdotal, initially, and now measurable evidence, indicates that our
readiness is fraying and that the long-term health of the total force
is in jeopardy. 
WILLIAM
COHEN: The budget includes the first sustained increase in defense spending
since the end of the Cold War.