Third Way Dispatch

With its unique blend of arrogance and incompetence, the Bush Administration has handed progressives the best opportunity in a generation to close a long-standing credibility gap on national security issues.

On Monday, April 3rd, we spent the day helping 36 progressive candidates for Congress do just that. Our message to all these candidates was drawn from Tough and Smart – A Winning National Security Strategy. The bottom line? Bush and his rubber-stamp Congress may talk tough – about or “bring em (sic) on”, about “gettin (sic) bin Laden dead or alive,” or “Mission Accomplished”(sic), but they haven’t been smart. We need national security policy that’s tough enough to protect the country, but smart enough to do it right.

Today the Associated Press reports on a new study for the Pentagon finding that “the Army has become a ‘thin green line’ that could snap unless relief comes soon.” The new report was written by Dr. Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who is among the nation’s leading experts on the defense planning and military affairs.

This report echoes many of the findings that Third Way made in a study that we issued in May, Boots on the Ground: Increasing the Size of the Army to Meet the Missions of the 21st Century. There we found that the Army was stretched to the breaking point by Iraq, Afghanistan and other deployments. We found that unless something was done, the Army faces four serious consequences: it might soon be unable to meet future threats; it can’t rotate and train its troops; it is facing huge recruitment and retention problems; and its reliance on Guard and Reserve forces is hurting local communities.