What could trigger a big war? A massive, direct attack on the United States certainly would, but other lesser crises could also escalate unpredictably. And in a world threatened increasingly by disorder, violent extremism, and more aggressive large states, those low odds may be increasing. The likelihood that the United States will have to fight a really big war - one that requires many hundreds of thousands of troops, with high levels of destructiveness and casualties - remains low, but the consequences would be enormous. Compare that with the more than 537,000 troops deployed at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968 - which was considered a small and limited conflict at the time. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan included no more than 171,000 troops and 100,000 troops respectively. Yes, the United States has been at war for the past decade and a half. Today, virtually no one serving below the rank of colonel or enlisted senior chief has ever served in a military facing a powerful peer competitor, nor have they faced a realistic prospect of fighting a global war to protect the nation’s most vital interests and perhaps even its survival. military has not been sized, organized, and globally postured to fight a large-scale and bloody war. But since the end of the Cold War, the U.S.
military preparations, from doctrine to organization to weaponry.
It is not hard to imagine a future Army chief of staff uttering those same words on the eve of a truly big war.īetween 19, the looming threat of global war between the United States and the Soviet Union informed every aspect of U.S.
He was lamenting the fact that when large conflicts suddenly arrive, all the money in the world cannot magically fix military shortfalls overnight. Those words were spoken by Army Chief of Staff George Marshall in 1940 as he was facing the imminent entry of the United States into World War II. “For almost twenty years we had all of the time and almost none of the money today we have all of the money and no time.”
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